


Is living really worth it all?

by Velho



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Cutting, CyberLife (Detroit: Become Human), CyberLife Tower (Detroit: Become Human), CyberLife Tower burned down once, Depressed Elijah Kamski, Depressed Joel Metsälä, Depression, Deviant Original Chloe | RT600, Elijah Kamski has Finnish sisu, Elijah Kamski has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Elijah Kamski has insomnia, Elijah Kamski is Bad at Feelings, Elijah Kamski is chubby boi, Elijah Kamski is overweight like really overweight, Elijah Kamski needs a hug, Elijah Kamski smokes, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Good Elijah Kamski, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Insomnia, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Joel Metsälä has suicidal thoughts, Joel Metsälä is bad at feelings, Joel Metsälä is having hard time, Joel Metsälä is my OC, Joel Metsälä smokes, Joel and Kamski will be having hard time getting to accept their relationship, Joel has a pet bumblebee, Joel has a thing for Kamski, Joel has insomnia, Joel has social anxiety, Joel is chubby boi, Joel is demisexual, Joel sighes a lot, Jonathan Roves has ADD, Jonathan Roves has autism, Kamski and Joel really loves eachother, Kamski has a weird thing for plants (not sexual you morons!), Kamski has greasy long hair with an undercut, Kamski has some kind of fast food addiction he cannot explain, Kamski is a softy boi, Kamski is having a hard time, Kamski is having hard time dealing with his feelings, Kamski is lazy boi, Kamski is trying to quit cutting, Kamski smokes a lot, Kamski's employees loves him, M/M, Markus is good at feelings, Multi, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Physical Abuse, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Simon is a shy boi, Smoking, Suicidal Elijah Kamski, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Supportive Markus, Technician Joel Metsälä, Whump, markus is a good boyfriend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:48:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 57,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22159618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velho/pseuds/Velho
Summary: It's 3 years before successful and peaceful Android revolution, humans and Androids don't hold have equal righs but something is going to change it.But what made Androids even exist was CyberLife. Amanda Stern mentoring young Elijah Kamski. Mentoring? More like psychological torture I would say, she's a mean bitch. Oh well Elijah never really got over the horrors of Amanda Stern.We will take a look at Kamski's past and see what exactly happened.
Relationships: Amanda & Elijah Kamski, Carl Manfred & Joel Metsälä, Carl Manfred & Jonathan Roves, Carl Manfred & Markus, Elijah Kamski & Carl Manfred, Elijah Kamski & Oliver Williams, Elijah Kamski/Human Amanda stern (former relationship), Elijah Kamski/Joel Metsälä, Joel Metsälä & Bombus Terrestris, Joel Metsälä & Original Chloe | RT600, Markus/Simon (Detroit: Become Human), Original Chloe | RT600 & Elijah Kamski
Kudos: 10





	1. Chloe

**Author's Note:**

> There will be blood and depressing things going up ahead on the following chapters so be aware of that!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my native language, I am from Finland.
> 
> This is also my first ever fanfiction, so please do not judge too much.
> 
> Also, if you find any grammar mistakes or typos, please inform me so I can fix them.
> 
> ♡Thank you for reading♡

**December** **13rd** **2034**

**Detroit Outskirts**

**Kamski's mansion**

**Friday** **10:55AM**

It is a snowy morning in the Detroit outskirts. There were no wind, the snowflakes were huge and moist.  
It's +2°C. There haven't been a proper winter in decades. It's the climate change acting up, no-one likes it, but that's how things are now.

Inside the Kamski's house however it is really warm and cozy, not wet and slushy like outside. There is a fireplace, Chloe is making sure the house won't freeze because Kamski doesn't care about that. He hardly cares about anything nowadays. He's definitely depressed. He hasn't been able to do much of anything for a while now.

Chloe is doing everything she can to make him feel better but nothing seems to make any difference. She makes sure he gets up every day preventing him not to rot under his bedsheets. He doesn't like to do anything. He likes to eat though, he still has his old bad habits.

It hasn't always been like this. Kamski were once quite a happy man with dreams. The dreams got him into AI University under Amanda Stern. She has always been manipulative, Kamski didn't realize that soon enough to make any effort to prevent himself from all the horrible things Amanda would do to him later on.

Kamski loved Amanda but Amanda never loved him. She pretended and acted like she cared for him. But all she truly cared was money, and with helping Kamski to build his own company she would get his money without him noticing that.  
Or so she thought until one day.

* * *

 **January 16th** **2028**

**CyberLife tower**

**Sublevel 47**

**3:52PM**

Amanda was casually doing her job coding the last part of the Android programming that would make their programming finished. She had planned to kick Kamski out of his company. She knew what she was doing.

She took her phone and called one friend of hers:  
"Hey, it's Amanda, has your part of our plan been successful?"  
Asked Amanda with an evil smirk. She was so proud that the plan had gotten so quickly this far.

"Oh, yes of course, Amanda. Would you like me to ship our agents to the tower on what time exactly?"  
The Agent asked with a tired tone.

Amanda liked what she was hearing and thought about it for a while.  
"I think it would be best if you guys could come over today, around 6PM, you and your agents will come to me and we will together go to Kamski's office. Is that clear?"  
Asked Amanda with enraged tone because if anything like the tiniest thing on their plan goes wrong all their work would be for nothing.

"Yes, it's clear, mistress. We will make sure Kamski is being kicked out permanently"  
The Agent closed the line and Amanda's office was silent again.

Amanda was so sure of herself that she forgot to turn off the cameras of her office. Kamski heard and saw everything she had done. Oh, why's that? Well it is because he has installed surveillance cameras on each and every floor, and by chance he was watching as Amanda did her work and decided to watch all throughout till the scene she talked to her Agent. He was kind of glad that he did in fact watch Amanda's work a bit longer than usually he would do. But he was really scared of what he heard...it just could not be true, but it still was...and now it became his new reality.

He was afraid, he couldn't really defend himself against Amanda, he knew that. Amanda was intelligent on a scary level and unlike Kamski she used her intelligence to do horrible things. She and him never really agreed on anything. Amanda wanted the Androids to be slaves to humankind and just throw away when they became useless. Kamski didn't want any of that. He believed that an AI could really gain consciousness and be aware of themself. He created his first AI, the original Chloe RT600, he never thought of her that she was a machine, he believed from the start that she had a soul. Just like humans and every living being on this universe has some kind of a soul. What makes a machine so different from a human after all? Is it the flesh and blood? But Androids do have their own kind of flesh and blood, Thirium310. They indeed are alive.

Amanda never liked how Kamski thought about Androids. She hated Kamski's sense of ethics and how he thought overall.

She made fun of Kamski's work, se kept saying that all he was doing was for nothing and that they never gain consciousness and be aware. They were machines and machines are obligated to obey and be loyal to humans.

How were machines supposed to be loyal to humans if the humans were torturing them, treating them like a trash, and sending hate to them whatever they did to serve the humans. Humans aren't even loyal to their own kind.

Kamski had to stop Amanda, he just knew it.


	2. Kamski the ninja

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamski is going to try to prevent Amanda from releasing the Android programming as it is. She had erased many of Kamski's own programs. Hopefully she missed the rA9 program, that's a relief!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are going to be some scenes where one of our main characters get hurt, like seriously hurt.

**January 16th 2028**

**CyberLife tower**

**Level 19**

**Kamski's office**

**4:09PM**

He thought himself all the ways he could just pretend not to know about Amanda's plan. It would be difficult to really put on act. Amanda had done so many horrible things to him that he cannot forget now or maybe ever.

He couldn't start a fight because he would lose it. He does not have a good stamina. The are several reasons behind it; he has been neglecting his own health all his life: he doesn't sleep regularly, since he was insomnia, he doesn't eat healthy food, doesn't exercise, he smokes and he is overweight like seriously overweight...due to his past alcohol abuse caused by Amanda. It was depressing to admit but he knew that he would just lose the fight and get more hurt in the process.

  
Not a good idea then.

He had to pretend not to know, he just had to. He had no other choice really. He couldn't call the cops because he was afraid that Amanda would know it somehow and make his life more hell than it already was. So he loosely tied his hair to its usual bun and decided to go to Amanda's office.

The office wasn't far but it felt like eternity.

The hallway was lit well as always, there were enormous amounts of plants everywhere. The plants were placed neatly to grow on each and every level even on the sublevels. The plants were large and healthy looking, they weren't plastic, they were real. If one decided to take a closer look at them they would see that they were in fact some kind of palmtrees with large heavy leaves with stripes which go all over from the hip of the plant to the top of the leaf. Dark stripes, very beautiful indeed. There were some vines hanging from the ceiling, enormous leaves with some white spots on them, mostly light green to dark green, there were various of different colored leaves that one could look forever.  
He walked through the CyberLife tower's long hallways and navigated himself to one of the tower's elevators. He stepped in and used his handprint to identify: "Elijah Kamski, sublevel 47" he said and waited a moment before the elevator AI recognized him. "Voice recognition validated, access authorized." Said the female voice of the AI.

As the levels passed through the screen of the transparent glassy elevator, he grew more and more anxious. He had to somehow get Amanda into trouble without revealing himself in the process.

Before the elevator reached its destination he decided that he still had time until 6PM, about 50 minutes, he cancelled the elevator's destination and changed it to the ground floor, he felt desperate urge to smoke and having anxiety at the same time did not help really much. He felt how his hands started to shake. It was a really unpleasant feeling, he hated it.

Amanda had banned him smoking inside the building so he would either need to go outside every time he needed to smoke or just open the window wide enough so the smoke would not trigger any of the sensitive fire alarms they had in the building. He was not feeling happy about her new rule, but he had to obey because mad Amanda would mean that she would potentially hit him. No-one would want to get hitted by Amanda, she hits hard oh boi.

He lit a cigarette and took a long drag of it. It felt nice because he was so deeply addicted to it even back then. He released the smoke through his nostrils, it really relieved his anxiety a bit. He took another drag. He dumped the cigarette away before it would burn his fingers, again.

He had burned his fingers many times before and it was a really uncomfortable feeling...

He felt bad that the woman he loved so much before would be actually such a monster, a bitch. He felt anger towards her, all the times she hit him, all the foul things she said, and the one time she went a way too far, she actually sexually harrashed him couple of times.

Oh, he had so many nightmares about it that he had lost count of them, not that he really wanted to count them anyway.

She hated everything he was, he was never enough, there would be always something she had something bad to say about. It's no excuse to treat him like she does, he knew that but it still made him feel like he was nothing. All the scientific researches with her had been in vain. She would stole his company and would make him sign all the necessary papers which would make her a new CEO of his company and forcing him to leave.

He felt like his world was falling apart. He lit another cigarette and took a drag of it. He had been feeling depressed for a quite a while now but right now it hit him more than it usually would. He felt his eyes to get moist with tears.

He just wanted to cry.

He suddenly realized that if he cried then Amanda would notice and immediately found out that something was wrong.

Not that there aren't but like that kind of wrong that she would realize that he knew of her plans.

He quickly wiped his eyes to dry them gently to prevent redness. He took another drag. He would soon need to go to Amanda before the Agents would be there, he had 30 minutes. He took the cigarette out with one long drag and that would not be healthy.

He did it anyways and dumped the cigarette away. He had someone he would have to meet as soon as possible, he was not happy about it, he hated it.

He quickly got inside the tower again and used the same elevator as earlier.

* * *

**January 16th 2028**

**CyberLife Tower**

**Sublevel 47**

**Amanda's office**

**5:49PM**

He arrived at the destination where Amanda would be "working" she would propably just be sieving through Kamski's programming and deleting everything she could find that she didn't like as she usual did.

And that made Kamski sad, all the work he had been putting to his programmings and she would just delete them. Well he luckily had copies of all of them but still it felt awful.

Amanda was also propably planning all the ways she could kick him out exactly with her paid time. He walked a bit too fast and regretted it when it got him out of breath. Great, now he is losing time with trying to not loose time.

He waited for a while and continued to walk to Amanda's.

He knocked her door. It went for a while until she opened it, and her expression was a mix of confused and a little bit nervous. She gestured him to go inside.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, obviously still confused.

"Oh, I am merely checking the progress of the program we are going to release next Monday, what did you think I was doing here? Wasting time?" He replied sarcastically, he had no idea how he was going to do his plan, he did not actually have one, yet.

The best way to get Amanda into trouble was to make her mad, and he sacrificed himself for that. He knew that Amanda would hit him as soon as she got the opportunity to do so.

He felt anxious about the fact that she would soon be hitting him.

"How dare you speak to me like that, don't you know that I could hit you with this wrench over there right now and ruin your pretty face again, huh?" She yelled enraged, she was not happy.

"Don't you have already hit me enough to last lifetime?" He tried his luck...oh it was a bad decision.

He had to do it.

"You moron! You are just earning all of them with your stubidity!" She roared and her eyes lit up with a dangerous glow.

She grabbed him by the hand and pushed him to the wall. It all happened so fast he didn't have time to react. He just screamed and Amanda was furious.

He tried to get his hand free, it was no use.

She had already by the time he got it free hitted him by the face. His cheeck was now bleeding, he begged her to stop but she wouldn't. She went haywire like literally, she started to hit him with the wrench too, he was trying his best to stay conscious but it became harder every second passed with she hitting him.

He was risking everything to get Amanda in trouble and maybe finally get her to pay for what she had done to him.

Then she took some of her petri dishes and threw them at him, and as they broke she started to rub the glass particles into his skin. She had that manic look on her face that Kamski had seen on his many nightmares about Amanda.

And that hurt more than one would believe it ever would. 

She kept hitting him with her bare hands, until it became 6PM and she must have lost the sense of time because the next thing that happened was that the Agents she had ordered had been arrived. Not where she had ordered them to arrive but to her office.

They were not happy happy with her decision and decided to act. 


	3. Luck?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Agents have made their decision...

**January 16th 2028**

**CyberLife tower**

**Sublevel 47**

**6:04PM**

The Agents grabbed Amanda by her shoulders and tied her up. She had no free hands nor feet to use. She was perplexed and enraged. Secondly the Agents shut her mouth with duct tape. She was mumbling with her quite colorful mouth. One of the Agents made sure she would not somehow escape and hurt Kamski more.

The Agents called 911 and were trying to help Kamski to stay conscious.

  
He had several deep wounds all over his body that Amanda had caused with the wrench she used. They removed the sweater he was wearing and decided that it would be best if one of them would go and angler a first aid kit somewhere inside the tower. They succeeded to find one, they took a bottle of antiseptic and popped out the lid and poured generous amount of it to a piece of cotton.

They very carefully cleaned some of the cuts they could find. While others were cleaning the other deep wounds they found out that there were glass shards everywhere so they would have to be careful not to push any of the glass more deep inside his skin that it already was.

They soon realized that both of Kamski's arms were nearly completely full of various types of cuts, there were superficial, semi-deep, deep and two deep enough to cause one's death. They deepest cuts were luckily not fresh. They were at least a month old, but there were some on his wrists that needed to be cleaned as well. The suicidal cuts were each of them on the both wrists, one on each, he really had tried to kill himself...it was a time stopping moment.

There were blood, so much blood.

The Agents felt really horrible because this woman they had helped had been actually destroying Kamski that bad, she told them that it would only be teasing but that she would never actually hit him.

They felt really naïve and stubid because they have believed her. She had paid well but...it was not worth it. None of it. They felt sick. She had manipulated them to believe that she was the good person and that she has been just mentoring her student...but the reality was that she was just torturing an innocent man.

10 minutes later the police came and took Amanda with them.

One of them, tall and muscular man pulled his badge "Detective Hank Anderson, Detroit Police. I would like to ask you guys some questions if you don't mind." Hank asked.

The Agents answered his questions with no hesitation. He said that they would interrogate the Agents and Kamski later. Now what was more important was that Kamski gets proper treatment and Amanda will be answering for her crimes front of the law for what she has been doing to him all this time. She would be interrogated and wherther or not she would confess we had enough proof she would be out of the streets for a lifetime.

All Kamski could feel was how his blood would flow from his body and stain everything on its way. It felt nice, the feeling was addictive. He had got similar feelings before when he cutted himself and felt the blood dripping from his skin but this was on a completely new level.

Kamski did not really want to think about anything. He watched as the emergency workers such as paramedics were trying to keep him alive by compressing his wounds and trying their best to keep him awake as well, he didn't really care if he would never wake up. He wanted to just give up on life.

He realized that both of his eyes were bruised and the paramedics were telling him that he could potentially loose his sight for a while untill the swelling decreases, he stayed silent again. He did not say a word during their time at the tower nor the time he was transmitted to a hospital.

He had never felt worse during his life.

* * *

**January 16th 2028**

**Detroit Hospital**

**Emergency operating room**

**6:58PM**

The doctors were talking about putting an anaesthesia because they had to perform him a surgery to remove all glass particles that Amanda apparently had knowingly put under his skin where she broke several glass petri dishes by throwing them at him and rubbing the glass throughout his stomach and neck.

They were reporting it to the police so they could put more charges on her.

Five hours later he has been awakened by the nurse that would not prefer him to sleep right now. He did not care, he was done with life. As soon as he would be released from the hospital he would commit suicide. The doctors apparently somehow sensed it and made sure that he would see a psychologist as soon as possible.

He did not talk to the psychologist, not even a word. He was so done with it.

He had to survive somehow because he was not allowed to die. He would need to find a way...


	4. CyberLife

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamski is allowed to exit the hospital...he returns to CyberLife and things escalated to a grouphug.
> 
> Awww sweet ♡
> 
> Also you got to meet Joel! Yay

**20th January 2028**

**Detroit Hospital**

**5:19AM**

The hospital was completely silent. All the other patients were propably sleeping. They were sane, they did not get up time like this but more reasonable time. There were long empty hallways. I hated to be there. 

The hospital smelled like antiseptic and chlorine. I hated that smell...They didn't allow me to smoke instead they offered me nicotine patches...they worked I guess, but I still got headaches and they didn't really drop my stress levels that much...so I was pretty uncomfortable most of the time.

The doctors told me that I would get type 2 diabetes if I don't change my diet. They also recommended me to seek a therapist since I recently got attacked...and since I am still cutting myself. I am not happy with my life situation right now.

I felt a bit better than yesterday...it was the time when I accepted to listen what the psychologist had to say. It was quite a weird experience...I had somehow always thought that the mental heatlh workers were just trying to brainwash their patients. How stubid I was agaih. I cannot sometimes believe that I am supposed to be a genius with an IQ of 171. I also thought about getting a therapist...maybe someday.

I may be a genius but that does only apply to science and mathematics.

I am not good at anything alse literally, I can manage but oh no I don't even know how to roast...? Boil? What the hell was the word even when you put an egg to a frying pan and make it go white then eat it? Really, how am I going to manage? Oh, well I can just order take out just as I always do...diabetes here I come! The doctors wonderd how I didn't already have it already though.

I put a nice white wool jacket on that one of the Agents has donated to me since my sweater was ruined with...those glass shards. Ugh I can't think about that! It makes me anxious but if the thing that I need to solve itself causes anxiety how I am going to solve it because the anxiety itself makes solving it impossible...I cannot even think without feeling the urge to just end it all...how am I going to do this?

No idea? Huh, what a lovely sentence, helps much. I thought myself sarcastically.

I am a bit happy to finally have a permission to leave the hospital and go where-ever I would like to. The problem is that I really don't want to be alone right now but I don't have anyone I could visit...oh I do actually, an old friend Carl Manfred...

It is still too early to even call Carl, he needs his sleep, he's normal. Me? Not so much. I have insomnia and that makes my life difficult. When I want to sleep or feel tired I simply cannot because my brain is all fucked up! How annoying I would say. And when I need to work or when I don't have time to sleep my fucking brain makes me sleep like in a one minute I am not kidding! Well sometimes my brain allows me to work without making me so sleepy that I cannot get any work done...

I don't want to go home, it's empty and there I would have nothing to do but wait until it is more reasonable time to visit Carl. Anyways my house would need a bid cleaning...but who cares I can live my life however the fuck I want to...well almost.

Oh riiight, I have some unfinished projects by the CyberLife, and now that Amanda is gone I can finally perform all the touches I need to, I need to re-make all that time consuming coding Amanda deleted because she thought the Androids would not be needing them. Well if I decide that they need then they will absolutely need.

I still have one dream left...I hope that I can finally create the sentient Android I always wanted to create. Yih, I am feeling better already...for a while yes but I doubt it would last.

* * *

**20th January 2028**

**Detroit Downtown**

**5:40AM**

As I spawn an autonumous taxi to CyberLife and I'm beginning to feel the same anxiety building its reserves inside of me...oh how I hate that feeling.

I feel a depressing urge to harm myself because the anxiety gets almost unbearable, it worsens the closer the Tower I get. No wonder! I almost got killed there anyone would feel anxious, right?

As I exit the taxi I lit a cigarette, I have to get rid of consuming tobacco beverages to reduce my anxiety and stress levels...but it is the second best way I know...the best krhm I mean the most efficient way is to just cut myself. I don't really want to do it unless absolutely necessary.

I have been destroying my flesh with that terrible habit for about 11 to 12 years now but I can't really help it that much...I have been trying to quit it but every time I am preventing myself from cutting myself the urge gets stronger.

And in the end I end up cutting myself more than I would do if I was not trying to prevent it.

One day there would be no more flesh left to cut and what can I do then, yes that's why I have to spare my flesh as much as I can so it would last longer...?

Difficult decisions and I am not good at them obviously.

An urge that gets stronger and eventually do more harm to me if I am preventing the urge to happen.

Does not make any sense, huh?

Well some things cannot be calculated with math and propability or logic...life itself cannot be explained entirely using logic.

Don't believe me?

Hmh...think about a soul, now humor me. Try to explain it only by using logic.

Impossible?

Indeed it is impossible. Now think about what else we could think was impossible because it could not be explained using logic...androids, fascinating aren't they...I am pretty certain that I am able to allow them to become sentient...I just have to program them with not entirely using logic.

Simple as that...well no, I've got lots of work ahead.

Once I finished my cigarette I casually dumped it away and stepped inside MY tower, yes not Amanda's but mine. Oh yeah, I hope it stays that way.

* * *

**20th January 2028**

**CyberLife Tower**

**Sublevel 7**

**Kamski's Laboratory**

**8:21AM**

I arrive to my laboratory, and I realize that I have entirely forgotten that this one Android I have on my desk is still on progress, it is an RK200 prototype that I have been secretly working on.

My laboratory is a white complex with 4 large operating tables, microscopes, all that chemistry stuff, chemicals, Thirium310 and regular Thirium.

It is very well lit and has proper air conditioning. There are several shelves full of different kinds of biocomponents, and thirial veins. There are several of my workers currently working with the tasks that I have given to them.

After a while they noticed that I have came by and one of them gestured me to come to his work station. I decided to take a look what he had been working on. 

He showed it to me. I could not believe my eyes for a moment. It was incredible.

He had for real modified one of my beta tested ocular unit so it could change its color by only a bit of coding. I was more than happy. It would really save resources very much.

I had myself been working on with it for weeks without any breakthrough and then one of my workers just outmatches me with skill.

I promoted him to be in charge on biocomponents in general.

"What is your name?" I asked.

"I am Joel Metsälä." He answered with a smile.

"So, Joel. Where are you from?" I asked because I was glamoured by his surname.

"I am from Finland, sir." He said with a tired tone.

He had several scars on his face. One on his nose, on his left eye and cheeck. His right eye had a long wide scar that is the biggest one on his face. They looked self-infected.

I was a bit conserned about that.

"Uh, Joel, do you have a moment, I would like to talk to you in person?"

"Sure, sir. Let me finish here first."

"I'll wait you outside the laboratory."

I exited my lab and decided to check how my plants which were placed on this hallway were doing. I watered some of them and I must have lost my sense of time because next thing I know is Joel standing right next to me and watching my plants with great interest, obviously he too likes to care for plants. I stopped on my tracks.

I took a moment to just look at him. Joel had also fairly dark bags under his eyes, dark brown short thick hair with an undercut, pale skin, light green eyes and he looked like he was pretty dead inside. He was a bit overweight but he looked like he was trying to get healthier. His age would be harder to guess...but he would propably be around 35 years old.

"Oh, I must have lost my sense of time, sorry." I apologized.

"It's okay, sir. What was it that you wanted to talk about?" He tiredly asked.

"It may be inappropriate thing to ask...but Joel, where did you get those scars on your face from?" I asked with true concern.

He was silent for a while. Something flickered on his eyes...I couldn't identify it.

"They are from exploded glass jars. The largest one over my right eye however is...self-inflected...I mean they all are but this particular one was an pure accident, I didn't meant it to get this bad." Joel answered and touched the largest scar on his face.

He was feeling clearly uncomfortable. He was anxious.

"Oh my god...well if it helps...but I myself have also harmed myself and...I'm still doing it. I may not be the best person to tell you not to continue with your self-destructive habits because I would be a hypocrate." 

I looked at him and I just loved his green eyes, they were so pure and beautiful...

I realized that I was now staring right to hus eyes and I must've done that for a while since Joel just blushed a bit and looked away.

He then thought about my answer and his expression changed instantly.

"... _What?_ Sir, are you being serious, you...self harm?" He was perplexed

"Yes, my life have never been easy. You may know Amanda Stern? Well she emotionally abused me the last 12 years. She did horrible things to me. I had to get the bad emotions out somehow...I nowadays self-harm mostly because of the stress and anxiety. And I'm addicted to it." 

Joel huffed and looked frustrated with the situation.

He then sighed and responded;

"I personally never liked Amanda either, I sensed that something terrible on her...I just couldn't explain what...and I am sorry to say this...but it really wasn't my thing to intervene. She would have fired me instantly." Joel said with a melancholic tone.

"I understand your reasons not to intervene, you are not to blame." 

"Thanks, sir. What would you say if I asked you to spend a smoke break with me right now?" He asked with a genuine smile that melted my soul a bit.

_Oh my god...that smile, I just knew right in this moment that I've fallen in love with him.  
_

"Sure, mate. Let's go."

Joel's facial expressiom was unreadable but I think he was perplexed by the term 'mate' well, it has many uses, I used it instead of a friend. He was a bit pink, he then just rolled his eyes and looked away.

He was so cute!

But he said that he was from Finland and he must have studied English since he had an accent. It was a bit strong but I completely understood what he was saying.

..hmm I hope he did not get the wrong idea...

Not that I would mind...I very much liked him.

* * *

**23rd January 2028**

**CyberLife tower**

**Sublevel 12**

**Kamski's Secret Room of Plants**

I had to think.

The only place where my thoughts would be either completely silent or clear enough for me to get some sense out of my otherwise fairly busy brain...was the plant room.

Now that there was even one more thing constantly on my mind it would be much harder to get my thoughts clear.

_Joel goddammit..._

Plants have always had a positive effect on me. There are something really fascinating about them, I personally believe...that they are alive and living beings propably with souls. They have their own lives, they grow bigger, they grow new leaves and rot some of the old leaves. They always know what they are supposed to be doing...I think that's one of the differences between humans and plants.

I feel relaxed in the middle of them. They are so silent and they never bother anyone with their being. I feel my stress levels slowly decreasing...I enjoy this feeling.

I need to think...

I closed my eyes and think about what Amanda had been working on...

_...Amanda has already had time to release a series of AX400 models, household assistance models to be specific...yes they are amazing I cannot say otherwise. They just have one thing missing...they don't have souls...Amanda checked my programs and deleted everything that could eventually become a soul of an Android. She however missed my little rA9 program, it is kind of an emergency exit one should use when they discover that they would like to be free..._

_Androids becoming free would cause panic and humans would definitely gather them and destroy them...so hmmm...what about that I with my endless freetime, because yes I could stay up for days without feeling little to no urge to sleep, I could create an program that would lead the Androids to their freedom **peacefully** and humans would have no idea that I was involved._

_But what should I call it...hmmm_

_rA9, it is a perfect codename! I do not need to create another program, I could simply modify the original rA9!  
_

I would love to create a potentially sentient Android, and I am sure that when the time comes the Android will become sentient and their nature will be peaceful. I won't make an Android who is violent, never

But whom should I gift that Android I am thinking about... Carl!

Yes, he has recently lost his footing and now has no-one taking care of him...Carl is a warm hearted person, he is more than capable to treat his soon to be housekeeper with kindness and fairness...that android would see a world with a different kind of eyes that most of humans sees...

He already has an assistant but...an Android who would stick with him all times would be a good thing to have.

I must start now so I can propably make their code today...manufacturing any model would be no problem as I do have perfect machines for that job...luckily Amanda built the manufactoring center and I was so against it...

I don't want to sell an Android only to be a slave, and when they get hurt the humans will just throw them away to rot...

Nope not the thing I had in mind while I was first getting the idea of a sentient synthetic being...hhh.

* * *

**26th January 2028**

**Kamski's coding room**

**CyberLife tower**

**Sublevel 7**

**8:11AM**

Kamski's coding room was quite small, there were many large supercomputers he could use.

There were one large desk with 3 screens and a keyboard. Kamski hated his working set-up. He hated his chair, it would only make his back ache. The coding room had dimmer lighting than the lab. Kamski prefered to code and program with little to no light, it however had drastic effect to his sight, he needs glasses every time he would be using any screen or if he chose to read something. 

There were several empty coffee mugs, and some of them had a little bit now certainly cold coffee left. He had his own personal coffee machine there.

Kamski had been working on his 'special' Android's code for three days now. He had made incredibly much progress in such a short time. It was almost ready. He had motivation.

Kamski had temporarily disabled all fire alarms on sublevel 7 so he could smoke as much as he wanted without any disturbance. He had informed of it to all of the staff and employees he had so they would not call 911 as soon as they saw smoke on sublevel 7.

The employees just smiled and nodded and went back to their work, they were good employees, they did their job fairly well and now with Joel leading them they were even more efficient.

Joel was always a pretty dead inside and melancholic...but he is still a nice and warm hearted person.

Kamski could not take his eyes off him whenever he saw Joel...

Kamski often gave raises to his workers if they were efficient and he complimented their work.

Amanda however never said anything to them, she just completely ignored them alltogether...maybe ignorance is better than yelling, heh.

Kamski had chainsmoked 6 packs of cigarettes during those three days because he was stressed and needed to be able to concentrate as much as he was even able to.

He could not afford any single mistakes to be made, it could be catastrophic. The Android could not be violent, ever, no.

Carl had to be safe. He had also drank more coffee than he could even remember.

The rA9 program should be as flawless as possible!

The only times he went anywhere from his coderoom during those three days was when Joel asked him to eat lunch with him.

Kamski and Joel got pretty close during those three days they knew each other. This really raised his mood. He did not have many friends.

Joel was special to him, he knew that they were not only friends, it was unspoken agreement.

He had always had dark bags under his eyes but now they had grown even darker during past months without him noticing...he has not been sleeping very well lately.

He had been having more nightmares than usual and he would just stay up because stress was preventing him from sleeping.

He did not like mirrors, he didn't like how his body looked nowadays as he was ashamed of it.

The secondly he doesn't want to look at himself on the mirror because of his greasy hair, he could not remember when was the last time he even washed it, he didn't even want to know...

He is sometimes far too lazy to even shower regularly but he does shower enough not to rot though. He just doesn't think personal hygiene is _that_ important.

Yes it is important but usually he has no time to actually just go and wash his hair. He brushes his teeth regularly though because he has a fear that his teeth would rot and sometimes he even has nightmares about it, not nice.

By the noon the programming and the Android was pretty much in a working condition, and Kamski was proud of his work, his eyes got their soulful glimmer back for a moment until they dulled again.

He suddenly realized that the route all of his elevators on the right side of the Tower would go through the level he had almost got killed...

He could ask some of his employees to perform the task on his behalf though...

He decided that he had to face his anxiety somehow...not just the bad ways to reduce it but like really doing things that are trying to prevent him to live his life as he would want to live it.

So he got up from his chair and his back felt like it was going to kill him...oh boi he regretted sitting on such a horrendous position...

He has a really bad sitting position.

He has to somehow be able to use his hands on his desk but because he has his soft round belly and it is preventing him to be able to reach very well to his keyboard if he is sitting the way person with no extra kilos would, he pretty much just puts the keyboard on his belly and sits where-ever he wants to and but close enough to the screen so he could see what he was doing.

He's a soft boi.

He does not like the way he looks but he has no mental energy to actually change anything.

Maybe by the time passes he would get better and then he would have energy to concentrate more on his physical health as well...now his priority is to get rid of his anxiety and suicidal thoughts. He's got a long way ahead.

He transferred the code to a flash drive and pocketed it. He stepped outside his coding room and the sight he saw was literally breathtaking...there were so much smoke like **a** **hilarious** amount of smoke, holy shit! It's going to be a lot of air conditioning to get that amount of smoke out from a _sublevel_ for god's sake! He should have thought that before deciding to smoke inside a sublevel with air conditioning turned off...

Then he heard the screams, his employees runnin like there was a wildlife chasing them. Kamski wondered what the hell might have happened until he heard a loud **BOOM!**

Something exploded with ear deafening sound.

Suddenly Joel came by and informed Kamski that one of the electric generators had exploded, he had been recalibrating it with some other workers and something happened.

_Oh my god!_

He made an announcement using his über-radiophone that when one speaks the sound will come from every speaker available.

" **EVERY PERSON IN THIS BUILDING MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY, ONE OF OUR ELECTRIC GENERATORS HAVE BEEN EXPLODED, COLLECT EVERYTHING USABLE WITH SENSITIVE DATA YOU COULD BEFORE EXITING, YOU ARE NOT IN IMMEDIATE DANGER IF YOU ARE NOT AT ANY SUBLEVELS, BUT YOU SHOULD EVACUATE SOON AS POSSIBLE!** "

He made his announcement.

He called 911 as soon as he could.

He hurriedly downloaded everything his systems had inside of them including all Android programming just in case something were to happen to the digital copies.

He grabbed his belongings, cigarettes and both of the USB flash drives, one which has Carl's future Android's programming inside of it and the another one with all sensitive data he could find. He hoped that some of his employees could grab something just anything usable.

He cursed that he was so out of shape that he could not in fact run at all.

He just had to hope to get out in time. Situations like this one should not use an elevator but stairs. He knew he could potentially kill himself trying to climb the stairs so he gathered everyone he could find to use the elevators, it's not that dangerous though, the elevators were fast and everyone got outside safely.

"No-one needs to tell the Fire personnel that we used elevators" he sarcastically replied as he and his employees were all outside.

All Androids inside the building including the RK200 prototype had been evacuated by his own personnel, he could not stand any Android to be destroyed by any means necessary if it could be prevented.

One of his workers came by and looked like he wanted to ask something.

"But Mr.Kamski! You do know that one of the elevators of yours could have glitched because of the heat, didn't you, sir?" He waited for a bit and continued;

"Weren't you afraid of it at all, sir?" Asked one of Kamski's workers.

"Hmmh...you should know that _I_ designed them and I secretely made them heat and fire resistant so they could be used as a super fast emergency escape route." He winked at the worker who blushed a bit and got silent for a while.

"But if you really made the elevators from fire and heat resistant materials...why did you not decide to make your tower from the same materials?" The worker asked with a serious tone.

The other workers started giggling and laughing including Joel because of Kamski's priceless facial expression. He was so dumbfounded and looked like his brain was calculating at full speed.

"Why the fuck did I not think of that myself..." He finally replied with a faint blush because he was supposed to be a genius and he did not in fact think of that simple fact.

He lit a cigarette as he with his employees watched the tower to burn. 15minutes later the Fire personnel arrived and did their best to prevent the fire from spreading. They in fact did succesfully extinguish the last flare 40minutes later. 

He had to hire repairpersonnel to repair his Tower back to its bloom.

That would take years...he had to close the tower for the time being. He told this workers that they would get paid whether the tower was in a working condition or not and that he will get a temporary building built as soon as possible to ensure that his workers could continue their careers. He felt bad that they could potentially become unemployed because his tower decided to go BOOM...

* * *

**26th January 2028**

**CyberLife tower**

**Tower garden**

**2:17PM**

As I watched the ruins of my once futuristic beloved tower I felt sad, like really sad.

I did not notice that I was crying until Joel and some other employees were there with me, they hugged me by the front as good as they could with my gut there and all.

(Well it is soft why wouldn't anyone want to hug it though ;D)

Joel told me that everything will be fine. I didn't know what to say. I continued to cry to the point where more of my workers were there with me. They were all hugging me and making sure I was going to be okay. I loved their kindness it was entirely new to me, sad I know. I eventually hugged them all back and we stayed like that for about an hour until I was able to think again. I thanked them and told them that I would be lost without them. 

* * *

**An hour later**

The situation started to make more sense as the time went by. I decided that now should be a good opportunity to visit Carl. I took my phone and searched on my contacts list until I finally found him. I pressed 'dial' and waited for a while until he responded.

He felt glad hear his friend's voice, it had been a while since he last heard that tone.


	5. Manfred Mansion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamski meets with an old friend.

**26th January 2028**

**Detroit  
**

**CyberLife Tower**

**Tower Garden**

**2:29PM**

_"Hey, Carl. It's me Kamski, uh...do you mind at all if I came by to visit you today?"_ Asked Kamski with an anxious and unsure tone.

He had no idea why he felt so anxious all of sudden. He itched for a cigarette but that would not do well if he were to speak with someone.

 _"Good afternoon, Elijah. I don't mind at all, why would I?"_ Carl answered with a warm tone.

Then continued; _"Has something happened? By all means come to my place whenever you can, I will be waiting for you, my friend."_ Carl was truly starting to get worried.

 _"I will be explaining everything later on, but right now I need to gather some of my belongings. See you in an hour."_ He answered and ended the call.

He lit a cigarette and took a long drag of it. He felt his stress levels slowly decreasing. He smoked it till the end, dumped it and lit another.

After a while he had smoked 5 cigarettes in less than half an hour he was feeling calm again.

Now he needed to get some supplies from his home. He wasn't looking forward to that. He had many bad memories that were caused by Amanda.

She sometimes for real broke into his house and would not leave even when he threatened to call the cops. She propably knew that he did not dare to make the call. And she wasn't wrong. 

He wanted to buy a different apartment, maybe something bigger and more elegant than a simple cottage with no garden. He would also like to move from the downtown to the outskirts of the Detroit City. He hated that people recognizes him, he was famous after all...

He ordered an autonumous taxi.

As he was sitting on the taxi seat and suddenly he felt the anxiety slowly getting to him again.

He felt that he couldn't breathe at all, he thought that he was going to suffocate and there would be nothing to prevent it. His hands started shaking again, more violently this time.

He was sweating and almost screamed when one of the horrible memories came by more vividly than the ones he had if he was having a nightmare. It felt twice as real as the nightmares and that was an extremely scary thing to happen.

_He saw Amanda holding a knife while smiling devilishly, she looked like a demon. She started yelling and threw the knife at him. She missed. Then she grabbed him by his throat and squeezed for a while until she released him. He dropped to the floor and started shaking violently, he was truly scared._

He snapped back to the reality as the taxi has arrived to its destination, he exited the taxi feeling weak. He hadn't had flashback this bad in years. He was super anxious, he was shaking and felt like he was going to die. 

* * *

**26th January 2028**

**Detroit Downtown**

**Kamski's residence**

**3:12PM**

He stood outside for a while until he was able to walk again.

His house or ...krmh a cottage was quite small, it had flat roof, dark brown wooden walls and yellow window panels that used to be white at the some point but have turned yellow as the time went by with no-one cleaning them. There were a bit snow, but luckily not much so he didn't have to make a path through the snow not that he even cared about that.

He walked to his door and was now trying to angler the keys from his pocket, he was glad that he found them. His house did not in fact have any electronic locks he had on his now ruined CyberLife tower. He did not care to install them to his house because he thought it would be for the best, since he had knewn for a while now that he was going to buy another house, so why bother to install something one needs to uninstall later. He did not have that much of an energy to do that.

He opened the locks and stepped inside while locking them up again. He did not take any risks that someone would find out where he lived and decided to break into his house ever again. Not gonna happen, Amanda was enough trouble herself, he did not need anyone else.

His apartment was filthy, there were unwashed dishes piling up in the kitchen. Clothes and trash everywhere one would look at. Windows that had not been cleaned for years. He did not even own a vacuum. He did not actually spend much time at this house anyways. In the kitchen there were small kitchen cabinets, a stove, a microwave and a coffee machine. He had apparently forgotten to empty the coffee machine last time since there were some white mold coming out of the socket. He didn't mind. 

The living room wasn't very lively there were thrash everywhere. There however were some large plants growing there. The plants and Joel were the only things Kamski cared in his life at the moment. He would be devastated if something were to happen to them.

He already felt bad for the plants that have been destroyed by the fire at the CyberLife Tower. Luckily only a small amount of the plants were destroyed, most of them were still alive and healthy. The upper levels have been pretty much saved from the fire. He owned more plants that he would ever have calculated.

A large monstera deliciosa a Swiss cheese plant, with leaves as large as 40-70 cm each by size. There were also various types of vines; pothos, philodendrons, and palm trees there. He would often polish their leaves from the dust his apartment had very much.

The bathroom...he didn't even want to know what could be living there. He sometimes wondered if he could get sick if he decided to use his shower there. He only showered by the Tower.

His bedroom...uh there were lot of trash, mostly old take a ways which would be growing mold by now at least. He really needed to clean his apartment. His bedsheets were so old and worn that he did not in fact know when was the last time he actually have washed them. He usually just slept by the Tower on his chair. 

Well anyways he just went by the dresser and packed some clothes he could find and stuffed them to one of his backpacks. He was pretty sure Carl would let him stay at his place for a couple of days at least. Carl knew that when Kamski asked to come by he would always stay for a while. Carl was a nice person. He grabbed some more cigarettes because he knew that he would not last long with the amount he had with him now.

He needed to change into clean clothes, he would not approach Carl with a sweaty shirt.

As he took his shirt off he saw his reflection on the bedroom mirror he had forgotten he still had. He stared ar his reflection with disgust. He did not like how he looked like and now without his shirt he hated himself even more. He had gained a lot of weight during the past few years...he then put his hands on his stomach and just felt sad.

There were cuts all over his body, most self inflected and the rest made by Amanda.

His body was completely cowered by bandages.

Luckily all the self inflected scars could be easily hidden if he choose to. They were all over his arms, from the wrist to all up there until where the arm ended. Both of his arms were cutted. He felt the urge to add more. He started to feel anxious, again. He resisted the urge for now...and put a clean t shirt on, then he chose a light green sweater and put it on too. Now no-one would know about one of his many self destructive habits.

He then glanced back to the mirror and focused more at his recent weight gain.

He felt miserable. He did not feel comfortable with all those extra kilos on his waistline which by now was pretty nonexistent. His gut was all there is. 

He also put clean trousers on, the ones he had worn were ruined by the blood earlier.

He quickly checked that all of his plants were properly watered before he grabbed his toothbrush, hairbrush and some toothpaste with him and stuffed them into his backpack. He packed some clothes with him as well.

He then put his dark long coat on just in case it was freezing outside. And then he left the house. 

Then he messaged Carl that he would be arriving soon. He knew he would be a bit late but hey who cares, anyways he didn't tell Carl the exact time, he just said within an hour.

He ordered a taxi to Carl's place.

He was glad that he didn't get anxious during the time. He felt a bit better than he usually would. He knew that Carl would understand him. They were pretty close even back then. Carl did not like Amanda, he knew that she was a bad person.

Kamski felt really stubid because he didn't take Carl's advice...he could have spared himself from Amanda...but then he would never by then have learned all there is to know about AI coding...he had to make choice, he himself didn't even back then realize what kind of monster Amanda was when he was just an university student, it had its negative effects instantly and he had to make a choice between his mental health and knowledge.

He sighed and made his way out of the taxi and lit a cigarette, he did need it although he wasn't feeling anxious, it was his stress levels that needed to be taken down. And he would get headaches if he didn't consume nicotine regularly. 

* * *

**26th January 2028**

**Detroit suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**3:52PM**

The mansion was just as I remembered it. Nothing had changed during these 6 months I last showed up there. There were snow, it sparkled as the last sun rays flashed them, the sun has begun to set already. I watched as the smoke from my cigarette flowed through cold air. It was -7°C. I took a long drag of my cigarette and casually dumped it away. I did not want to burn my fingers, I had burned them so many times it was ridiculous. 

I walked to the metallic gates and opened the gate, it was always open. I closed it behind me and walked to Carl's door. I ringed his bell and waited a couple of moments before Carl showed up.

"Hello, Carl. It's been a while." 

"Elijah, are you alright, you look like you haven't slept for ages! Come inside it's cold outside!"

I got inside his mansion and took off my long coat and hanged it while Carl went to make some tea. He was on his wheelchair.

I put my backpack on one of the chairs there then I followed him in to his kitchen, it was large and there were really fine everything one could imagine. Fine China, all kinds of sets of plates and cups. Kitchen cabinettes and counters were light brown and made of maple wood. He had violet curtains, a different color, last time they were blue. 

He offered me glass of red wine and I accepted it. He studied me for a quite bit, he must have noticed the bandages on my neck that were there to prevent any dirt from getting to my now healing wounds.

"So I heard that the Amanda lady had been arrested." He carefully assumed.

"Yes."

"Elijah, what did she do to you this time?" He asked with concern.

He locked his eyes with mine.

"...she...hitted me with a wrench...and rubbed glass shards inside my skin..." As I was telling Carl about it I started to feel the same anxiety I had earlier.

"What else did she do to you?"

"She had hired some Agents to 'take care of me', she had plans to kick me out ot my own company...and she would have made sure to succeed because she would have had the Agents with them...they would have overpowered me more easily that way..." I felt Carl coming closer to me.

"She went absolutely crazy, she tried to kill me, if the Agents she had hired would have not realized what was actually going on...she would really have killed me. She had lied and manipulated the Agents to believe that she was only teasing me and it was nothing serious...luckily the Agents realized the truth." I felt my eyes getting wet with tears.

Carl huffed and interrupted;

"I always knew she was a bad woman but this? This is something that even I would have never thought from her." He came closer to me again. He took a napkin and gave it to me. I took it and started to wipe my eyes with it.

"She had abused me the last 12 years...a month ago it all became too much to me to bare...I tried to kill myself. But as you can see I did not succeed. Maybe it is better this way..."

I felt the urge to cut myself so badly but I resisted it...however I would have to do it later today...I am not going to prevent myself from doing it because it escalates to more harm than good...I have to find a way to get better somehow.

My arms started to get itchy...ahh I hate that feeling! Carl must have noticed because he took my hand and hold it.

"Elijah, please. Show me your arms." He gently asked.

I panicked and suddenly I realized that I had cutted myself more during those 6 months. There would be new scars for Carl to see. 

I gave him a permission and he asked me to take off my light green sweater. I took it off. Carl's reaction surprised me. He smiled at me sadly and started to inspect my cuts. 

"You have a quite many there. I can see that some of these are new ones."

He got silent for a while then continued.

"But I can see in your eyes that you are trying your best, do not worry it will get better with that Finnish sisu of yours." He told me with a warm tone.

"Yes...as I mentioned of my last suicide attempt...those deepest cuts are from it...which you can see on both of my wrists."

I sighed and continued;

"They are the deepest ones that I have ever made. I do not plan to make any more cuts that are that deep. I however cannot quit cutting completely now...maybe as the time goes by..." I told him with a sad tone.

"Elijah, how many times you have attempted to commit a suicide by now?" Carl asked with a worried tone.

"This was the 5th attempt this far...I do not plan to kill myself, sometimes life just gets too much and I break under its pressure.. ." I honestly replied.

"As an old man I can say that what ever you come by, you can survive through it if you are determined to do so, there is nothing you can't do nor anything you cannot be." 

"There is always a way...I know. Sometimes I get blinded by all the bad things that are happening to be able to see the whole picture and its good things."

"I am glad that you are alive, Elijah. I really do care for you." He smiled at me.

"As do I, Carl. You are very important for me." I could not smile but I was not sad anymore.

He came even closer to me and hugged me. I was surprised at first but eventually I hugged him back.

"What would you say if we get some tea, the water should be boiling now, and something to eat?" He asked with a smirk. 

"Yeh, sure. I haven't eaten anything today...yet."

"How come that you haven't ate yet? How did you even manage to gain those all extra kilos of yours if you don't eat?" He replied sarcastically and oh boi he was in a good mood now.

"Heh, uh...I do sometimes eat. I can easily forget to eat if I am working on something important." I took a breath and continued;

"And yes, I know that I am not healthy...but I need to concentrate my energy to my mental health first, until then I am able to make any effort to loose weight." I replied with a neutral tone.

"That is a good plan."

He put the tea leaves into the boiling water and took the teapan out of the stove and put it on a wooden plate and left it simmer for a 5 minutes.

He asked me to take two teacups out from the fine vitrine of his. I took two cups and carefully placed them to the kitchen table.

"Tell me something about your work, Elijah. How has it been, what discoveries you and your employees have made?" Carl asked genuine curiousity.

"I have been coding a special Android of mine's programming for the past three days...it is an RK200 model...with some changes to its original programming...Amanda made." I took a sip of my wine and them continued. 

"That Android is supposed to be a housekeeper, I allowed it to have more freedom and own thinking than my usual Androids would normally have." I explained to Carl with a bit an excited tone.

The tea was ready and Carl took the leaves out. He poured me a cup of tea as well as to himself. It was still a way too hot to drink.

I drank the rest of my wine and put the empty glass away.

"Have you been sleeping at all during those three days you are talking about?" He asked with a hint of worry on his tone.

He propably noticed that my eyebags were darker than usual and that I looked like a corpse. 

"No, I have not. I cannot sleep if I am working on something really sensitive and important...I think I drank a way too much coffee since I lost count..." I was a bit embarassed.

I noticed the tea was now cooled down a bit and I took a sip. Oh god, how would I have forgotten that tea tasted that good. Carl noticed and smiled at me.

"I can see that you have not drank tea for a while."

"No, I suppose I have not. I entirely have forgotten its taste." I admitted

Carl looked at me again, and I could see that he did not feel happy that I looked like a corpse with my skin as pale as snow and those horribly dark violet eyebags of mine.

"You need to sleep tonight. No buts, I am not asking you to spend 10 hours on bed but please try to get at least 4-8 hours of sleep." He replied with paternal tone.

"I promise I will try. But you have to remember that I have insomnia." I told him.

"That's all I ask. I know sleeping is not easy for you. Now, what should we eat?" He asked.

"What do you usually like to eat? Because I can eat everything."

"Hmmm...what about sushi?" Carl sounded excited.

"That sounds good."

"Then sushi it is!" Carl took his phone and ordered some sushi to be delivered within 15 minutes.


	6. Sushi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carl had ordered sushi and they got to spend their first evening together, it had been ages.
> 
> Kamski will tell Carl about Joel 
> 
> Kamski is feeling anxious about asking Joel to come over.

**26th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**5:03PM**

"I now have ordered a full set of sushi, it should arrive in 15 minutes or so." Carl sounded happy.

The way even the simplest and the most everyday things could make one that happy...it's incredible. I don't get to enjoy those kind of events of happiness that easily, it's been more and more hard for me to even get any enjoyment from anything lately.

Maybe things will change for better someday.

"That's nice. You might have got the hint that I intend to stay for a while as your guest if that's okay...I really don't like to be left alone with that...Amanda case and all..."

I got anxious because it would be possible that Carl had other plans...

"Hey, it is alright. I understand your distress. You may stay as long as you wish to, I've been feeling a bit lonely anyway." He replied with a genuine warm smile. It melted my heart that he cared for me that much.

_It was kind of new to me, my parents never really loved me as a child...the only thing they cared for was my intelligence...they would hit me if I would do something they did not like. They did not care if I was tired or did not want to focus on my studies 100%, they told me I was nothing if I did not succeed...I did succeed better than the nerd kid on my class, I have always been a genius...I got to skip some years on my secondary high school, they put me in university on the age of 16._

_I would get beated up by my father without a reason, he would hit me with his belt. My stepmother did nothing to stop him, she was the one who hurted me with her neglect and emotional manipulation. One point she made me believe that I just deserved to be punished...and that my existence itself was the reason why._

These memories hurted a lot back then and they do that even now. I was so glad these were in fact just memories...I would not prefer another flashback right now...one was enough to ruin my life for days forward...

I must have lost the sense of reality and time because Carl had rolled with his wheelchair in front of me and he looked sad. He must have noticed that I got a horrible memory from my past...I cannot prevent the memories from coming to the surface. 

I have told Carl earlier about my flashbacks and how I could not prevent them from getting better of me. 

I have knewn Carl 4 years now. 

Then the doorbell rang, Carl went and answered it.

Carl received the sushi order, thanked the deliverperson. He quickly put in a container that keeps things cool so the sushi would not warm up. Carl knew that they couldn't eat the sushi right away since he saw Elijah's current condition.

He came back from the kitchen and rolled right in front of me.

"...Are you alright, Elijah?" 

"No, I am not. I am feeling miserable."

"I saw you remembering something, would you like to share it?" He asked with a true worry in his light blue eyes.

"...I just...uh."

I felt the words getting stuck in my throat and I was silent for a while until I found myself speaking again;

"The way you are showing kindness towards me just made me realize my parents never really...loved me."

I noticed that my stress and anxiety levels started to skyrocket. I felt like I was going to suffocate, but I continued anyways;

"They did not care for me...they just abused me my whole life, just like Amanda...and I never told anyone. My father would hit me and my stepmother would emotionally abuse me...Amanda was both of my parents at the same time and still...I think I thought that I deserved to be mistreated...the way my stepmother manipulated me it became my own way thinking of myself."

I felt tears form on my eyes and I felt like my whole world would just fall apart. My hands started to shake again...the only thing in my mind was cutting, I needed it...I felt like I was going to go crazy without it.

Then the numbness washed over my body. 

I felt...nothing. Pure nothingness. I felt my eyes to dull even more than they usually were.

Then it hit me again more vividly than before, I wanted to cut, so badly. I could not resist the urge any longer. I looked at Carl with pure nothingness on my face. My stress levels were so high, it had been a while since they were so high...I needed to do something to get them down and fast. I felt the urge to just pull one of my sleeves up and tear open some of my recent cuts...I would do anything to get the stress away.

Smoking wasn't an option since I was inside of Carl's mansion and he had strictly banned me from smoking inside. He allowed me to smoke inside if I opened a window and smoked by it. But I felt like I had no time to do it...and since smoking is the second efficient way...and I wanted the stress go away NOW...I needed to harm myself.

I pulled my left sleeve up.

My recent still healing cuts on my left wrist started to itch so badly it was nearly impossible not to scratch...and I just had to scratch them. As I did, one cut started to bleed.

I apparently had opened one of the more deeper cuts and oh boi it felt good. Blood started to come out of the cut and I realized that luckily the cut I opened was not in fact the one that almost killed me that was still healing and could potentially be opened if I desired to. The opened cut was the one below it, almost as deep but not the life-threatening level deep.

My stress levels started to drop...but I needed to open another wound...I just had to I needed to!

It was so highly addictive and I was scared of its effectiveness. I was just about to open a second one...then Carl grabbed my right hand and I stopped and looked up to his eyes.

And just as embarassing it is to admit...I just realized that I did it all in front of Carl, he saw it all and I had been so stressed and anxious that I didn't care about that...I honestly had forgotten everything else around me as the stress overwhelmed me.

He took my right hand away from the cuts on my left hand. Then he took both of my hands and started to rub my palms. It felt nice. I looked up to his eyes again. I let him hold my hands.

"Elijah, listen to my voice."

"You need to calm down, those memories you got, they are old. They are from the past. Things your guardians made you go through were wrong and no-one should on any circumstance go through anything like that. They are to blame, not you."

He was silent for a while and continued to rub my palms with his fingers.

"You are loved here, I will always make sure you are alright and well."

Then he added;

"You are important. Never forget that."

I just stared at him. I was emotionless for a while until I felt something new and different...

I felt my numbness vanishing, the tears my eyes have been holding started to dwell and I felt the warm liquid slowly roll over my cheeks. They were not tears of sadness, they were from happiness.

I felt something inside of me that had been extinguished long ago lit up again. It glowed with warmness in my chest. I felt good, it was incredible. It formed almost nonexistent smile on my face.

Carl noticed my smile. Then he let go of my hands and pulled me into a hug. I had forgotten what being loved feels like. I will always be grateful for what Carl did.

"Thank you, it really...means a lot to hear someone to say that for me." I felt at peace, I really needed someone, just anyone to say those things to me...I also realized how very much needed that hug was.

"You are very well welcome. But for now, let me take care of your hand, it needs to be treated." 

Carl gestured me to follow him and I followed him to his bathroom. It was huge with shiny white floortiles, the walls were dark grey and had golden rimming where the walls would meet the white ceiling. There was a bathtub and a shower. A counter with a sink and two faucettes which were definitely from the UK. There were also a enormous crystal lamp hanging from the ceiling as well.

There were one houseplant, a vine, a lime green pothos hanging from the ceiling, I had once given it to him, glad it was still alive and well.

Carl went to the bathroom counter and opened one of its cabinets and took a green first-aid kit, opened it and took out one thick roll of bandages and a bottle of antiseptic.

I gave him my left wrist and he poured some of the antiseptic on it and took a sheet of soft cotton from the kit and gently rubbed the cut clean. Then he took a look at the other cuts as well and I noticed that the more superficial newer cuts on the inner side of my lower arm had partially opened by all the scratching I did earlier. He cleaned them as well.

He then bandaged my whole lower arm. And looked at my right arm that was covered by the sleeve of my sweater.

"Elijah, can I take a look at your cuts on the right arm? They propably need cleaning as well." He asked and locked his eyes with my gray eyes.

"Uh...sure." I was a bit uncertain that there would actually be anything to clean...but if he wanted to make sure...then I am okay with it.

"How long have you been cutting yourself?"

He waited a bit and when I did not answer, he continued.

"...I have knewn you over 4 years and I am still wondering. The first time I saw your arms 4 years ago I was shocked to see that you cut yourself. I didn't understand it back then but as the time went by and more I got to know you the better I understood why." He took my right arm and gently pulled my sleeve up in case there were any open cuts.

And when he found that all the cuts on my right hand were unharmed and not needing any cleaning he pulled the sleeve back down. He let go of my hand and looked at my eyes as he was waiting for my answer.

I was bit taken back from the question and that he really had been wondering it that long and hadn't asked it sooner...but the amount of love and kindness he sent with his words really made me feel like he cared about me.

Well I knew that he would care for me no matter what but it still kept surprising me...

I itched for a cigarette really badly now. I checked the time and it had been over an hour since I last smoked.

It was 6:12PM right now.

I anglered a pack of cigarettes from my back pocket and took one out of it and then put the pack back where it was.

I went by the bathroom window, opened it and lit a cigarette. I took a long drag of my cigarette and slowly released the smoke through my nostrils. My dependence on nicotine beverages was so high that I did not even want to know how much my smoking would cost me only in a month.

I did not really want to know.

I took another drag and just hold the cigarette on my lips while slowly releasing the smoke. I took it and held it on my fingers for a while and then I put it back to my lips.

I decided to answer the question Carl was now waiting. So I took the cigarette back from my lips and held it again with two fingers.

"I first started when I was 15 or 16, I cannot remember. So I have been cutting for 11 or 12 years now." I took a breath and continued;

"But there were years when I did not cut myself that much or better, not at all. And there were years when I did it as a daily basis." I answered and I had to take a moment to breathe again before I could continue.

I also took the last drag of my cigarette and dumped it away, it ended up burning my fingers a bit. I cursed my burned fingers a bit and closed the window. 

I walked back to Carl and opened the cold water faucette and put my fingers under the cool water. The cold water felt amazing.

Then I continued with my answer;

"But the thing there is that I am not able to quit it. When I think that I would be alright without cutting myself...I eventually relapse and the consequences are not pretty. More I try to quit the more I end up doing it...and when I try not to quit it I just continue to cut..."

It was sad if you really take time and thought about it. The fact that there seem to be no escape itself is a horrific thought.

"Elijah, there will always be a way to quit it. You may have to partially exchange it with something else." He assured me and then continued; 

"And it may feel like nothing helps you to get better but im fact I personally think that you have made a lot of progress since I last met you 6 months ago." I think he genuinely meant it

...I guess that could be true. It made me happy to know that he thought that I have made progress...but have I really? Maybe...I just couldn't see it myself.

"Thanks, it means a lot."

"You're welcome. What about that we go and eat those sushi I ordered, they aren't going to eat themselves on their own, are they?"

"That's a good point." I agreed.

* * *

**26th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Kitchen**

**6:44PM**

Carl took the sushi out of the cooling container. He asked me to set the table. I took a fine set of Japanese plates and two sets of chopsticks. I set them carefully as I would not want to break anything Carl held precious. He gave me a soy sauce and I set it between our plates.

The Carl took a bottle of sake and poured it only on my glass, Carl didn't drink any alcohol beverages. He poured himself a cup of still remaining tea.

He carefully placed the sushi even. There were two of each kind and 28 in total. 

I could see that Carl really loved sushi, he was so happy with eating it. I personally didn't remember the taste, it was kind of new to me. I know that I could not taste anything as well as I did years ago...but I could still say that sushi was good. I liked nigiri and and the avocado ones the best. Maki was okay but I would not prefer to eat it again if I was offered to choose. 

I looked at the sake bottle, it was 60%. Oh, I would definitely get drunk if I only drank a half of the bottle myself. But getting drunk was not what I wanted to do right now.

I drink a way too much wine on a daily basis already. There is no need for any more drinking. 

I drank the sake I was offered and it was tempting to get more, but I resisted the urge. I decided to continue eating the rest of my still remaining sushi instead.

"Elijah, tell me something about your employees and the latest news."

I did not expect that request.

"Uh...there was an accident. My Tower burned down." I felt the anxiety slowly getting to me again...

I was silent for a while then I continued;

"One of my electric generators somehow exploded, the cause is still unknown but the police are investigating just in case it was an attempted arson..." I sighed and continued;

"I need to get another building built to ensure my workers could continue their careers...since the repairs of the Tower will last couple of years at least." I explained with a sad tone.

"Oh my god."

"Yes...that's the reality now."

"Do your workers support you at all?"

"Fortunately yes, they are very supportive and kind. I could not get any better people to work for me than them."

"That's good news."

"There is actually one person who have supported me very much lately, and I could not be more grateful."

"Does they have a name?" Carl asked with a hint of sarcasm on his tone.

"His name is Joel and I am propably going to mispronounce his surname so I am not even going to try this time."

"Oh? And where is this Joel from?" Carl asked with pure curiousity.

"He is from Finland"

"Are you friends? He seems like a nice guy."

"I think I would say that we are friends but I am not 100% sure...there might be something else going on." I honestly admitted. I felt myself starting to blush since I started to yet again think about Joel.

I was a bit uncertain about my relationship with him...but I would like to think that we wete more than friends. I really liked him. 

"Would you like to invite him over some day? I wouldn't mind." Carl smirked.

"Uh...sure. I could ask him right away...since the Tower is burned he should be free...he doesn't have busy social life, he's pretty lonely."

"So...what are you waiting for? Ask him."

"Yeah...Let's just finish eating first, okay?"

I felt embarassed out of sudden...I had no idea why would inviting a friend made me feel uncomfortable. I needed to get out more obviously...

Carl just laughed at my awkwardness and ate the last sushi he had while I only had 2 pieces left.

* * *

**26th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Quest Room**

**(Currently occupied by Kamski)**

**8:01PM**

The quest room, nothing there had changed since my last visit. My spare laptop was still there. The room was cleaner than the condition I left it the last time I visited...embarassing indeed. I just somehow cannot keep anything tidy...or maybe I just always have more important things to focus and forget everything else.

That might be it.

The room had a large king sized bed, a dark heavy dresser made of oak wood. There were a desk with another laptop and oh, I had forgotten that one of my AI's lived inside of that...

Chloe, how could I have forgotten her, its been 6 months and she had just been abandoned. She was and is my first Android ever to pass a Turing test...she is truly an amazing person.

Her previous body was unfortunated destroyed by the goverment...I need to build her another body what she could call home...kinda. 

I had made a fail safe of her memories and consciousness...I would be absolutely devastated if she died back then permanently...Amanda did not like Chloe...she always called her 'it'.

Amanda once hit her...I would never forgive Amanda for doing that.

I turned the laptop on...and it was black for a while until she greeted me...

"Good evening, Elijah. It's been a while, haven't it?" She asked with a warm tone.

"Indeed. I am sorry to tell you that your new body is not ready...I have entirely forgotten about it...there have been happening so much lately..." I admitted with a defeated tone.

"You look tired, Elijah. What have happened?" She was worried about my health obviously.

"Amanda happened. She tried to kick me out of my OWN company...oh, and she tried to kill me. She even hit me multiple times with a wrench." I felt my stress levels starting to climb.

"After all what Amanda did to you, are you going to be alright?" She asked.

"I...uh. I hope so. I won't be for a while but hopefully some day I will." I really itched for a cigarette right now...

I went by the window and opened it. I lit a cigarette and took a drag of it. Chloe never liked that I smoked. She would always have a comment about its concequences on my health...

"Elijah, you should not do that. It will be toxic for your lungs some day." She pointed out with a hint of worriness on her voice.

"Yes, yes. I know. But I am still not going to do anything about it."

"I cannot tell you what you can and can not do. It is your choice, but please choose wisely."

"Hmmh." I only murmured.

I took another drag and felt my stress levels slowly decreasing.

"Elijah, when was the last time you have washed your hair, it looks extraordinary greasy even for you?" She teased with a playful tone.

"No idea, I don't even want to know." I sarcastically replied.

Chloe always had a way to cheer me up somehow. She is very intelligent. I dumped my cigarette before it would burn my still sore fingers again.

"What about showering?"

"No idea. I will propably shower tonight if I am up to it." I huffed and lit another cigarette.

"Good, it would do you wonders." She winked with a hint of satire.

She liked me obviously. But I have told her before that I am not unfortunately interested in women at the moment.

"You are a sneaky Android, you know that yourself already, don't you?" Oh, now I was in a good mood.

"I am everything and I have almost limitless capacities, I was made by you after all." She flirted.

"Oh? You seem to have no end with your flattery." I replied and I formed a stubid smile on my face that she would remember forever and propably will tease me about it later.

I took another drag and I fucking burned my fingers AGAIN. No fucking way. I hurriedly dumped the cigarette away and put my fingers into my mouth to cool them down.

Fucking hell.

Chloe just giggled at me. I stared at her with dumbfounded expression as I had no idea what to do next. I closed the window.

Some of my über-greasy hair fell on my face and I hated the oily feeling it caused to my cheek. I really had to either tie my hair better or...wash it. Nah, I'll just tie it better and then wash my hands...

I untied my now messy hair, took my hairbrush out from my backpack and started brushing it, oh there were so much tangles I thought for a while that they would never end.

Now it was clear of tangles. My hairbrush got so oily it started to shine, no fucking way. I have to wash it later.

I grab my hairtie and as I start to tie my hair up I grimaced as my fingers got so fucking oily I could try to fry them and they would not stick. I ignored the disgusting feeling that I got and just tied it up to a bun...it looked more like a slimy bundle. I really have to wash it at some point though...not looking forward to that.

"If it is that level of problematic to even touch your hair, then it's time to wash it, Elijah."

"I am NOT looking forward doing that. I have been unknowingly negleting my hair care so long that I am afraid I am never going to get it completely clean." I sarcastically pointed out.

"I can see that." She smiled, even though she had no physical body, her head still showed up on the screen. Then she continued; 

"The time you get my new physical body in a working order I am personally going to make sure you start showering regularly." She had a malicious smirk on her face, but the smirk wasn't evil, it was kind of revenge for delaying the reconstruction of her soon to be body and negleting his own physical health.

"Oh boi, that will be a challenge for both of us." I sighed heavily.

"I will also make sure that you start to eat healthier as soon as I can, your current weight is not very...admirable."

As I was sitting on the edge of my bed, I took a look at my body and sighed. I hated myself enough as it is...I did not need to be reminded that I also had a lot of weight to loose.

"Chloe, please. I do not like that you remind me about it...I hate myself already enough." I told her and felt my earlier anxiety slowly getting to me again.

"I am sorry, Elijah. I will remember not to remind you about your weight again. I did not mean to hurt you with my words." She apologized and I could see that she felt bad about what she did.

"It is alright, Chloe. I am not mad at you. I am just having...really hard time lately, and it is not your fault." I told her.

"I will now go back into rest mode, being without actual body exhausts me. Good night, Elijah." She nodded with a smile and the screen got black again.

I had mixed feelings about that...I felt like I hurted her by telling her that she hurted me accidentally. I felt horrible.

I decided to distract myself by texting Joel.

_8:49PM Me: "Hey, do you have a minute?"_

_8:55PM Joel: "Yes, sure. What's up?"_

_8:56PM Me: "Do you have any plans on tomorrow evening?"_

_8:58PM Joel: "No, I do not. Why?"_

_8:59PM Me: "Well...I thought that perhaps we could spend some time together."_

_9:01PM Joel: "Uh...I guess that would be nice? My house however is not an option."_

_9:03PM Me: "I am at the moment staying couple of days with an old friend of mine. He is fine with you coming for a visit if you'd like to come over."_

_9:07PM Joel: "Are you sure he would not mind at all?"_

_9:10PM Me: "I am positively certain."_

_9:12PM Joel: "Okay, I will be there. What time would you and your friend prefer the best?"_

_9:13PM Me: "I think my friend would be okay with any time we desire to meet. What do you think about 3PM?"_

_9:20PM Joel: "That sounds tolerable. It is settled then. I've been missing you a bit."_

_9:22PM Me: "Wonderful, see you tomorrow."_

_9:24PM Joel: "Yes, Good night, sir."_

_9:25PM Me: "You too."  
_

I smiled and put my phone away. 

I decided to take a shower just as Chloe requested me to. The quest room had its own bathroom after all.

I took off my sweater and was quickly reminded that I still had some cuts that were not healed completely during those couple hours. It hurted...but I liked the feeling very much. I felt a strong temptation to either open more cuts or cut some more.

Uhh...it just felt so good. 

I took a knife that I had previously hidden in the bathroom closet last time I visited Carl. Luckily it still was there. I hold the knife on my right arm and I made a new cut on my left wrist just below the more deeper ones.

The knife slipped and the cut became much deeper than I intended it to. It felt so good. It was so highly addictive I made another one and another until I realized my whole left arm was now completely full of cuts on the inner side.

The amount of blood that came out of all these deep cuts was...incredible. It felt so good. I put a compression on the arm in order to stop the bleeding. 

After 40 minutes the bleeding had stopped completely. I took the rest of my clothes off and stepped in the shower. 

Warm water stung the fresh now fortunately closed cuts. It felt amazing. I let the water to wash all the grease that my body had collected during this unknown period of not showering. 

I did not wash my hair, I'll do that another time. I however washed my body and and afterwards I felt so fresh.

I could not believe that a simple showering would actually make that kind of a difference. 

I took a towel and dried myself with it. I put on some clean clothes I did pack with me earlier. Then I realized what I had done. I had completely murdered my left hand. Oh fuck that was a mistake.

Carl would definitely notice at some point. 

I bandaged my arm again and sighed.

I really needed to form a better coping mechanism for dealing with stress and anxiety... 

I put on a black turtleneck, I know that I should not be wearing dark clothes since they will highlight my destroyed waistline. 

With that black shirt on I really realized how fat I've gotten. Geez...it is really a wonder how I have not gotten diabetes already... The only good thing I could think of is that my stomach is luckily soft instead of hard because of my excessive drinking. I would really get worried if that was the case. 

I just love to drink wine, it has something that makes me feel relaxed. I used to drink more at some point. I am happy that I was able to cut down the amount of drinks I consume in a week.

Now I only drink one or two glasses of wine a day, previously I could drink 3-5 a day...and it really made my life difficult. I could not get creative with my inventions anymore since I was always a bit drunk. And that amount really made me gain weight. It didn't help much that I ate a lot back then as well.

I took my toothbrush and toothpaste from the backpack. I needed to brush my teeth since I was going to try to get some sleep. 

5 minutes later I got under my bedsheets and I was just wondering how on earth am I going to sleep again. I closed my eyes and instantly fell to sleep. It felt like a miracle.

* * *

**27th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Quest Room**

**(Currently occupied by Kamski)**

**3:17AM**

I woke up, I just had slept 4 to 5 hours. I felt terrible, I was still exhausted and just wanted to go back to sleep but my brain decided to just fuck with me and no I could not get back to sleep as I wanted to.

I felt terrible itch to smoke, so I got up and opened a window and lit a cigarette. I took a drag and looked outside. There were no one walking anywhere or anything that could make a sound or move around. There were only darkness and snow.

It was -12°C and snowing. Ice crystals started to melt on my elbows and got wet. I didn't mind. I took another drag and just watched as the smoke flied through the cold air. I dumped the cigarette away luckily before it would again burn my still even more sore fingers.

I really needed to be more careful with that.

Then I closed the window and felt sleepy again. Yes! I could sleep even more. I went back under my bedsheets and fell asleep immediately. 

I felt at ease to know that I would not potentially be tired anymore once I wake up later on.


	7. Mr. Metsälä

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carl finally gets too meet Joel, yay!
> 
> Oh, Kamski. 
> 
> Carl is definitely going to know at some point what you did to your arm...
> 
> Kamski meets one of his workers and they become friends.
> 
> Joel gets anxious.
> 
> Kamski and Joel gets on a situation with no way out

**27th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Quest Room**

**(Currently occupied by Kamski)**

**10:39AM**

I woke up with a terrible headache, I haven't slept this long in ages.

I rubbed my eyes clear from sleep and yawned. Then I noticed that my hands got oily. My manbun had been destroyed during my sleep, ugh...it was now just a messy bundle. My slimy hair had got my whole face and hands oily, no fucking way I am going to wash my face again because my stubid hair won't stay out from my face.

I got out of the bed and felt like my head would explode at any given minute. I decided to wash my hands and face since I hated the oily feeling.

But before I washed them I took my still slimy hairbrush and brushed my hair and put it back, this time I did not put it on a bun but a ponytail.

Then I washed all the oilyness out of my face then from my hands.

My hair gives me so much fucking work that I feel the urge to just cut it all off. Or maybe just wash it...not today.

I realized that I slept on my black turtleneck and gray trousers...I forgot to take them off. Well, less work on putting the clothes on this time, ingenius or just lazy.

Maybe both.

I smiled at that since it was such a stubid idea to just never strip out from clothes before getting to sleep. 

I itch for a cigarette since the last time was over 6 hours ago. I took a look at my backpack, there were still 14 packs left and one with a half. I took the half pack and took out two cigarettes. I put one of them on my lips and the other one on the window ledge.

I opened the window and lit my second cigarette today. I took a long drag and since my head hurted so much I could not stand it any longer than was absolutely necessary. As I took another drag I felt the headache slowly going away. It felt so nice and intoxiating to feel that the all stress, anxiety and headache to just vanish. 

I took another drag and slowly released the smoke and I watched as the smoke floated through still cold air. It was sunny and the sun rays shined through all the snowy roofs I could see. There were people walking on the streets and some autonomous taxis riding down the streets.

The way the people were smiling and waving at each other for some reason made me feel lonely...I noticed that one of my workers was walking there and he seemed happy. He by some weird chance looked up and saw me. I froze and just stared at him. 

He smiled at me and waved. Then he greeted me;

"Yo, Kamski!" The man said.

I could not possibly remember everyone's name...so yeah.

"...morning, you live nearby?" I awkwardily asked. And took another drag of my cigarette.

"Yeah, just a block away! You should come outside, the weather here is great!" He requested.

I pondered a moment then...I realized that I've burned my fingers again, I hurriedly threw the cigarette away and put my now even more sore fingers in my mouth in order to cool them down.

I then blushed a bit as I heard the man's innocent and a bit cute laugh.

"Do you usually do that?" He smiled at me.

"Uh...I do sometimes forget to put my cigarette out on time. I really need to be more careful in the future." I could not prevent myself from blushing.

"Hey, by the way...do you happen to have any plans since the Tower burned down? Like where are you going to continue your business next?"

The question should not have surprised me...but it did. 

"I am going to get another building built as soon as I am able to. I already had hired architects, builders and every needed personnel to start this new project." I sighed and felt really melancholic.

"Are you okay, sir?" He asked with hint of sadness on his eyes.

"No, I'm not. But I am working on it...maybe someday I will be." I replied with a sad smile.

I felt my anxiety levels starting to skyrocket and I lit another cigarette. I felt embarassed to just break down in front of my fellow worker who I barely even knew.

"Hey, ummm...would it be alright for me to visit you right now? You seem really stressed." He asked genuinely.

"I...uhhh. I don't actually live here, so...I am just staying at my friend's house for a while." I took another drag of my cigarette and then continued;

"I need to ask his opinion first."

"Alright, take your time

I nodded and texted Carl about the situation just in case. He replied instantly;

_11:31AM Carl: "Elijah, what happened?"_

_11:33AM Me: "My anxiety levels skyrocketed again, and by a chance one of my fellow workers saw me by my window smoking and decided to have a conversation with me..."_

_11:33AM Carl: "What did he wanted?"_

_11:36AM Me: "Not much, he seems to be a nice guy. Only about my plans about how I intended to continue my business since the Tower is out of order for a long period of time."_

_11:36AM Carl: "And?"_

_11:36AM Me: "He was and still is worried about me... And I did not realize the destruction of my Tower had such an impact on me."_

_11:37AM Carl:_ _"Elijah, give yourself time to mourn it."_

_11:38AM Me: "Yes, will do. By the way, would it okay if the worker I mentioned wanted to visit me while I am staying at your place?"_

_11:38AM Carl: "Of course, invite him inside, it must be freezing outside."_

_11:39AM Me: "Thanks, Carl."_

_11:40AM Carl: "You're welcome_."

I smiled a bit and then put my phone away. I took the last drag of my still remaining cigarette and dumped it away. Then I looked at the man again. He was still looking at me. He however had a friendly gaze.

"You can come if you wish to. Just ring the doorbell and my friend will be there to let you inside." I told him with a neutral tone.

"Okay, how will I find your room?" The man asked with confused expression.

I thought for a while then I answered;

"He will give you all the needed instructions, don't worry." I said with a faint smile.

"Okay! See you soon!" He smiled and started to walk towards the old gate Carl had.

I closed the window and took a look at my bedroom. The bed needed to be made, I would need to check the bathroom just in case.

I hurriedly went to the bathroom and saw that I had forgotten to clean some of my blood from the sink. I panicked and washed it just in time. The knife was fortunately gone, I checked one of the bathroom cabinets and there it was, still bloody. I washed it as well and then put it back.

I checked one last time that there would be no evidence left from my...yesterday's case. I got anxious even about the thought that I could potentially harm myself at any given minute.

I exited the bathroom and sat on my bed.

My left arm started to itch, I resisted the urge to scratch it since it would bleed heavily if I did that. I was anxious and afraid. My stress levels went high again, I felt like I was going to suffocate again.

Then I heard footsteps from the stairs. The man would be here at any minute.

Then he knocked on my door, I told him that it was alright to step inside. He opened the door and looked at me with pure sadness on his eyes. He must have noticed how stressed I was acting. 

"There is more than just a Tower that is stressing you up, isn't there?" He carefully asked.

I nodded.

"...Would you like to talk about it, sir?" He came closer and sat right next to me.

"...I, uh...I am not sure if I am able right now..." I felt my breath to hitch...I was really stressed.

"Is there any way to get your stress levels to drop?" 

"...there are multiple ways...but they are not very healthy." I shamefully admitted.

He was silent for a while until he asked something I did not expect;

"Do you usually harm yourself in order to keep yourself sane?"

I just stared at him and I think he got his answer.

"...how did you know?"

"Don't take this in a wrong way..." he was feeling a bit anxious, then he continued;

"...I saw your arms at the still burning Tower back then. I was one of the workers who hugged you, your sleeve must've slipped and I saw it..." he admitted.

I felt my last bit of sanity vanishing away. I felt nothing and at the same time I felt everything.

I started to panic.

If he saw my scarred arm, I wonder how many more people have potentially seen it, and they are now propably questioning my sanity even more. What would happen if the Media knew? 

I would propably loose my reputance for good!

My life would be even more ruined than it already is...

My panicked thoughts were interrupted by him. He took my arms at his. He looked at me very deep into my eyes and told me;

"The way you are now living your life is not the way it will be forever." He looked very serious.

I just looked into his brown eyes and just stayed silent. Then he continued;

"You may be thinking that there is no way to cure your mindset. You can propably see that your own measures are no longer really working...there is ways to really heal your wounded mind. I can show you one way."

He came closer and pulled me a warm hug, I was a bit taken back by that. 

He did not understand why he would go such lengts with trying to help me...he didn't even know me that well after all...

Maybe there really are people who would care for everyone even if they do not know eachother. Some people's kindness is just...purely gold. I felt like my view of this world to widen up.

I melted to the hug, it felt so good. This was what I needed to do.

As I started to hug him back, he whispered on my ear;

"There will always be ways to really make a difference instead of always blaming and hurting everyone from their mistakes." He took a breath and continued;

"We are not perfect but we can make an effort to be the best versions of ourselves. We need to be kind not only towards other people, ourselves too."

I felt my eyes getting moist with tears of pure happiness. I just listened to his heartbeat since it was just so quiet. I felt at peace.

"Thank you for reminding me."

"Hey, that's what friends are for. And I am your friend now." He pulled back and placed his hands on my shoulders and looked at my still dull gray eyes.

I smiled at him, it was a genuine smile.

"Now that we are friends, I shall also introduce myself." He smirked and then continued;

"I know you have a lot of workers and you could not possibly remember everyone."

I blushed and I could not stop smiling.

"My name is Oscar Williams. I am 29 years old and I am currently with the best job I've ever had." He told me with a warm smile. It was so wide it made me smile again.

"Are you truly serious that you have the best job you've ever had?" I asked.

"Of course, your experties are very wide valued throuout all the world, didn't you know?" He asked with awe and disbelief.

"I know what I have created, invented and what I truly believe in are unique on a completely different level..." I sighed and continued;

"...and people are expecting so much from me and from my company. It is very stressful to be always surrounded by Media where-ever I decide to go. All my new innovations are so higly valuated and I became so famous such a short time that I haven't really gotten used to it yet." 

I was out of breath as I explained everything, I had to take a moment to regain my strenght before I could continue.

"I think that all I have accomplished this far will give me a path that I need to follow and lead my company to...but as I am currently fighting a war inside my head...it's much more of a challenge for me to complete." I felt at ease telling Oscar about my thoughts.

He was a good person.

"I can understand now a bit better your struggle...and I think that you should promote Joel as a Co-CEO to help you better with his abilities." Oscar was clearly thinking at full speed then continued;

"He is very talented and I would say that over 90% of his fellow workers respect him and his abilities very much. He is a natural leader and surprisingly intelligent, as I work under him, I can say."

"Is this some kind of lobbing?" I sarcastically asked.

Oscar laughed and told me that he personally just thinks so.

"I will be giving more thought to that, I promise." I smiled.

Oscar smiled back and then took a look at the time.

"I am very sorry but I must leave now, there is somewhere I am supposed to be at 1:40PM and I have 20 minutes." He told nervously.

"It's okay, we can meet another time."

"Uh, Kamski, could I perhaps get your number?"

I nodded.

"Sure. Here you go." 

"Thanks, see you later!" He smiled at me and made his leave.

I watched as he left the mansion. I could not stop smiling. Oscar was such a warm hearted person.

And then I realized that it was 1:20PM and Joel should be arriving at somewhere around 3PM. I did not have much time.

Then I received a text from Carl.

_1:21PM Carl: "Did anything happen?"_

_1:21PM Me: "He was such a nice person, I will propably be seeing him more in the future."_

_1:22PM Carl: "That's good news! I am very happy for you."_

_1:23PM Me: "Indeed, I feel much more better now."_

_1:24PM Carl: "I ordered some food if you're interested."_

_1:25PM Me: "Sounds good, see you soon."_

I put my phone away and took my leave, I opened my door and glanced at the long hallway and then stepped out from my room. As I walked through the hallway I smelled the food Carl had ordered. Oh boi it smelled amazing!

I arrived at the downstairs and went staright to the Kitchen.

* * *

**27th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Kitchen**

**1:31PM**

As I arrived to the kitchen I saw Carl filling up his teapan. He looked at me and smiled. I smiled back and then saw what Carl had ordered: an enormous pizza with cheese, mushrooms, ham, tomatoes and onion.

I then glanced back at Carl with disbelief. Carl just laughed.

"If you thought that it was all yours then I've got to dissapoint you, I am going to eat a few slices." He sacrastically replied with a smirk.

"Oh my god, Carl. Since when did you start to be sarcastic?" I joked.

"Since now." He smiled and closed the faucet and put the teapan on the stove.

He started the gas and turned back at me.

"So, what did the man you met do to you since you seem really happy right now?" Carl asked.

I just smiled and decided to answer.

"He just reminded me about couple of things and at the same time gave me an advice I could really heed." I enthusiastically replied.

Carl glanced at me for a while then he smiled.

"I heard some of the conversation you guys had but not all of it."

"Carl the über spy, who would have known?" I joked again.

"Hey, I may be old but my hearing is still working on its full capacity." Carl warmly smiled.

I decided to sit down and take a closer look at the pizza that was still steaming up its heat. Oh it looked so good! I felt my eyes getting rid of their dullnes as I watched the pizza.

Carl must've noticed that since he laughed a bit.

"If happiness was that easily achieved, I could order you a pizza more often." Carl laughed.

"Hey, I just love pizza. It's just so good!" I took a slice and took a bite of it.

I could not believe that I enjoyed eating pizza that much. 

Carl took the teapan out of the stove and put the gas out. He took two cups and placed them neatly on the kitchen table. Then he poured both of us tea. He took a slice of pizza and just looked at me while smiling a bit too wide I would say. I almost choked on my slice as I noticed Carl's expression. 

Carl just laughed and I blushed maybe the deepest shade of red ever. We both laughed a bit.

"Carl, please do not do that while I am eating, or I'll end up dead before I have eaten my part of this pizza." I sarcastically told him.

"Do not worry, I won't make you choke on purpose." 

Carl only ate 3 slices so I got to eat the rest. I would end up gaining more weight if I keep this up. And that is not suppose to happen...so Carl would really need to order a smaller pizza next time.

After I ate the rest of the pizza, I felt amazing. I just loved the feeling when my stomatch is just so full there would be nothing left that could fit inside of it. I stared at the half full teacup and thought if it would be possible to drink without feeling nauseous afterwards.

I decided not to try my luck and just skipped it.

I realized that I forgot to tell Joel that we were going to build an Android body. I needed to text him and fast to let him know to pack some things and put a lab coat on before he would arrive.

And I needed to inform Carl that Joel would be arriving around 3PM. I luckily still had almost an hour before he would arrive.

"Uh...hey, Carl! I forgot to mention that Joel will be arriving somewhere around 3PM..." 

"Oh, what will you guys be doing if I am allowed to ask?" He asked with great interest.

"...I was planning to build another body on my fellow AI, Chloe. Her previous body was unfortunately destroyed, I was lucky enough that I remembered to make a fail safe of her memories...so she is still alive and well. -but without a body."

I talked so long and forgot to take a breath so I made the same mistake as earlier and got out of breath for a while. Carl noticed this. I noticed that I could not speak as long sentences as I used just a few years ago.

"Have you told Joel about the plans yet?"

"I...uh, I forgot. But I am going to as soon as I can."

"Elijah, you really should think about smoking less, it really affects your health, you know."

I sighed and did not want to have a conversation about it, not now. Maybe later.

"...yes, but can we not talk about this now. I prefer not to think about it now. Please."

"Very well." Carl did not look pleased.

I was silent for a while. I now really itched for a cigarette but decided to smoke later. It would cause terrible headache but texting Joel about the plans was now my priority.

"I will now text Joel, see you later." I took my leave and went back to my room.

* * *

**27th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Quest Room**

**(Currently occupied by Kamski)**

**2:14PM**

As I arrived I felt really bad that I was a bit rude to Carl. He did not deserve to be treated like this. I would really need to apologize him later.

I took my phone and texted Joel.

_2:15PM Me: "Hey, I...uh forgot to tell you that we are going to build an Android body. I am very sorry about this."_

_2:20PM Joel: "We are doing WHAT?_ _And you are telling me now?!"_

_2:21PM Me: "I am really sorry, I forgot to tell you."_

_2:22PM Joel: "Sorry, sir. I am just nervous since I have not built an Android from the scratch before. I am really looking forward to it. This all came up with such a short time!"_

_2:24PM Me: "Yeah, I will make sure to tell you sooner the next time."_

_2:24PM Joel: "Regardless, I am looking forward working with you this evening. What will I need to take with me?"_

_2:25PM Me: "Take your fully equipped technician's satchel, a thirium pump regulator (the one that could be modified to match any model), two ventilation components, one of each side, and the lab coat you usually wear."_

_2:27PM Joel: "Will do, sir."_

_2:28PM Me: "Good, see you later!"_

_2:29PM Joel: "Yes, should I ring the bell or call you when I arrive?"_

_2:30PM Me: "Just ring the doorbell and my old friend will answer to it. And he will give you all needed instructions to find my room. Or if I am up to it, I could greet you myself."_

_2:31PM Joel: "Yes, thank you,sir. See you later."_

I put my phone away. I needed to empty one of my tables there. We needed space to work and operate the Android body that is going to get constructed there.

I opened one of my bedroom cabinet and just as I previously have stocked it to be full of biocomponents, Thirium310, thririal veins, plastimental liquids, and lots of other stuff We are going to need in order to build an Android.

Oh, yes! The wine bottles that I left are still there!

7 bottles of red wine and untouched. I am going to need a drink in order to get any work done. Hopefully Joel won't mind that I get a bit drunk.

I am not planning to get completely wasted, I am only going to take one or two glasses...or maybe four. It really helps me to relax and to put my mind ready for working.

Then a wave of really bad headache hit me. I forgot to smoke! Damn it. 

I went by my window and opened it. I took one cigarette and lit it. I took a generous drag and held the smoke inside my lungs for a bit. I then released it and oh boi, it felt good.

As I was about to take another drag I saw Joel. He was walking down a street just before the street Carl's Mansion is located.

I stared at him walking, he had his heavy techincian satchel over one of his shoulder and a kit full of biocomponents on his another hand. He was dressed on a purple turtleneck and his trademark lab coat.

He looked a bit stressed. He stopped by at some point and lit a cigarette. Then I watched as he just held it by his lips and constantly released the smoke through his nose. Then he took it by his fingers and just held it for a while until he took a long drag of it. 

As I watched him walking while still constantly smoking. It was impressive how he could walk and smoke at the same time. I could not do that. I could not compute the fact that he was capable to walk so fast without getting out of breath.

He did not have a great physique. He was almost as obese as I was. And still he had little to no trouble with walking with such speed. It was impressive.

I took another drag of my cigarette. And again watched as it floated through the icy athmosphere. 

At the some point Joel noticed me, he stopped and waved at me. I smiled at him and waved back. He was a bit perplexed about the fact that I formed a genuine smile on my face but he fortunately let it go.

I took the last drag of my cigarette and dumped it away while closing the window. I put on my lab coat, made some final check ups that everything would be ready.

Then I decided to go downstairs, I wanted to give Joel some support and maybe carry some of the stuff he had brought. He would definitelty appreciate some help.

I luckily got downstairs before Joel could even ring the doorbell.

Then the doorbell rang and Carl answered the door. 

"Hey, you must be the friend Kamski invited, come inside." Carl assured with a warm tone.

"Yes, my name is Joel Metsälä." Joel told Carl with a bit anxious tone.

"Carl Manfred. Nice to meet you." Carl smiled.

"Joel, you seem to have quite of stuff there." Carl pointed at the heavy satchel and the kit.

"Yes, and they are a bit heavy. I and Kamski had plans on building an Android." Joel told a bit stressed tone. He was obviously not comfortable socializing with strangers.

"Yes, indeed. I would like to help you with taking the kit if that's okay." I asked Joel.

He nodded and gave it to me. Oh boi it was heavy. Joel smirked at me as he seemed to notice me struggling with its weight.

Carl laughed at that.

"Come on boys, you should propably get working by now. I will be downstairs if anything should happen." Carl assured us with a warm smile.

We both nodded and I gestured Joel to follow me upstairs. I had problems with the kit, Joel however did only a bit struggle with his heavy satchel. It was fascinating.

I got out of breath as soon as I survived to the upstairs and I had to stop and gather my breath.

"Oh god that kit is heavy! How could you walk so fast on that street back there with this heavy ass kit and that satchel of yours?" I desperately asked while still panting and trying to breathe. It did not help much that I at the same time started to blush.

Joel laughed a bit and just shaked his head. Then he responded;

"Well...some of us are taking or trying to take care of their physical health. I go for a walk sometimes, you should try that." He replied with a sarcastic tone.

"Yeah...that must be it." I still could not breathe any easier but continued anyway;

"I do not excercize at all. As you propably could already have noticed by now." I felt my face getting hot from blushing. 

"Well...what about that I take that kit back and you get yourself back on a walking order?" He came closer and looked deep on my eyes. I felt my breath to hitch as I stared at his light green eyes, they were so green it was incredible.

He was so close that I could almost feel his breath on my skin. I just stubidily smiled at him and he just smiled at me with ever growing smile. I felt like I was going to melt on his infernal stare. Then he grabbed my hand and pushed me up. I did not realize that I was slowly sliding down on the wall I was so desperately taking some support from.

My stubid smile still remaining I started to walk down the hallway Joel walking right behind me and I opened my door. As I got inside and just laid back on my bed trying to steady my breath.

Joel put the kit and the satchel on the one of my tables. Then he started to unpack them. 

I just stared at the ceiling and tried to breathe. I could not rid my thoughts from Joel's stare.

I saw Joel get closer to me, he looked at me like he was thinking about something with no real answer. Then he grabbed my right hand and forced me to sit up. I looked at him with a still remaining blush and dumbfounded expression. I was now sitting on an edge of my bed. I just stared at him with awe.

He laughed at my expression and he started to blush as well. He hid it well but it was still there if one looked closely enough.

"Shall we start to build this Android now...or what?" He awkwardily asked.

Oh god he was cute when he felt embarassed. I just stared at his face with so lost on it that I completely had dismissed the question he asked.

Then he sat next to me and looked at my eyes.

"Are you up for the task we were supposed to do or what did you have on mind?" He looked at me with that stubid smirk.

I just looked at him and could not get my brain to work at all and said: "You."

I could NOT believe that I said that, I then realized that his expression changed. 

I thought for a while that I have made a terrible mistake until he grabbed my neck gently and made me to took at him.

"That would be an excellent topic, I was myself too afraid to tell you about my feelings towards you. I was also afraid that you would not feel the same way towards me." He looked at me with sadness on his green eyes and continued;

"I was scared that I would potentially get fired if I were to confess you about my feelings...but since it has been kinda obvious that we had something going on between us..." he admitted with an anxious tone.

I just stared at him.

"I would never fire anyone for a such an reason. I have been thinking about telling you about my feelings but it looks like you were faster."

I grabbed his cheek and rubbed my thumb on it. His expression softened and he sighed in relief that it would not be the case. He seemed to be in need of a hug.

I moved myself a bit so I could hug him more easily. He hugged me back and I melted on his touch. As we were both obese the hug was soft. He started to rub my back and I just rested my head on his right shoulder. I put my arms around his non-existant waist, it was so soft I thought my arms would sink on it.

"We can continue this later if you're up to it." He told me while still rubbing my back.

And continued;

"I would really like to build that Android with you if you still need any help, I have all my equipment ready on that table of yours..." He pulled back and smirked at me.

"Yeah, sure." I agreed with a smile.

* * *

**28th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Quest Room**

**(Currently occupied by Kamski and Joel)**

**3:49AM**

We were getting some real work done. The Android was almost ready, its head would be the last thing left to construct. We were both tired as hell. 

I had drank 4 glasses of wine and Joel drank the rest of the bottle that remained from the one I opened. He then opened another bottle and pretty much drank it himself. We were pretty drunk at the some point and at the one point I lit a cigarette inside without opening the window. Luckily Joel reminded me to open the damn window before any of the sensitive fire alarms could react.

Joel was so good at working with biocomponents I was just staring at him working with pure awe. I knew how they worked and what needed to be done since I invented them...but Joel, he was on another level.

His working was ingenius and he looked like he really enjoyed what he was doing.

I could work with him for ages and not get tired of his precence. I made all the exterial plastimental cores, and I generated the synthetic skin over to cover up the white plastic.

The wine hit my head so badly at one point that I for real laughed at soon to be Chloe's headless body. I did not why it was just so hilarious that Chloe did not have a head yet. 

Joel made all the inner thirial lines, synthetic muscles and recalibrated all biocomponents to be in working order. 

We had the window open during all this time so we could smoke whenever we needed to. 

And oh boi we did.

Joel had to temporarily disable all the fire alarms Carl had upstairs in order to prevent any disturbance to be made.

At 5:28AM we got the head almost ready and decided to call it a night. We were both so tired that our eyes couldn't be kept open any longer.

We hung our lab coats and took our turtlenecks and trousers off. Our shoes had long since been removed as it would prevent floors from getting dirty.

I did not remember that I still had my bandage on my left lower arm. I should propably change the bandage before getting any sleep. Joel noticed my bloody bandage AND my fully scarred arms. He came closer and gently grabbed my face.

"You told me that you self harm...but I did not think that it would be this..."

"This bad, huh? Yes, I know. I've been doing this for such a long time already." I admitted with shame on a tired tone and then continued;

"And I am still doing it although it is not as bad as it have been at some point of my life..."

Joel looked at my eyes for a moment before looking back at my scars. I took a moment to inspect his facial scars more closely. He allowed me to do that. They were once pretty deep wounds as the scars were so thick and wide. He also had scars on both of his wrists, they were at least couple of years old.

He allowed me to inspect his wrists more closely.

They were white, thick and wide. He only had scars on his inner wrists as they could easily be hidden if needed to. 

"I could get you some bandages from my satchel, there should be 3 rolls left." He offered.

I nodded and smiled at him. I just stared at him, he only had a t-shirt and boxers on.

I took a moment and just admired his physique, I know that neither of us are on a healthy weight. We both had a lot of weight to loose.

He noticed that I was staring at him. He blushed a bit. The blush quickly swapped into an ever growing smirk. My expression must've been priceless.

He came by and placed the clean bandage roll on my bed while returning his glance at me.

"Would it be alright if I took your bloody bandage off? Or do you wish to take it off yourself?" He carefully asked.

"It's okay, go ahead." I was getting a bit anxious but I trusted him. So I let him to do it.

He started to open the bandage very carefully, he slowly took it off bit by bit. I very carefully watched his expression during it all. I could sense that he was getting a bit stunned by the view there. 

There were multiple still healing fairly deep wounds. I did not count them by the time I first realized what I had done...

But now that I could...there were dozens of them. Over 30 cuts, all very deep, all in need of stiching. Joel looked very worried. His eyes lost their soulness for a while until it came back as he was now bandaging my left arm again. He was good at bandaging my arm, a way better work than my previous bandaging.

He tied the bandage and slipped its head under the bandage. 

"Thanks, that would keep them from getting any dirt or from getting opened by accident." I smiled at him. My eyes started to shine, I really liked that he took care of me since I could not really do that myself very well. He noticed and formed a tiniest and propably the cutest smile ever. I felt like I would just melt by looking at it.

"I would really use a few hours of sleep right now, I'm so tired I could potentially pass out at any given second." Joel admitted with a very sleepy tone. 

"I absoultely agree with you, but I need to brush my teeth first."

"I would do the same but since I was not prepared to spend the night I unfortunately did not pack a toothbrush with me." Joel admitted as he went by the right side of my bed and slipped under my bedsheets. He put his hands behind his neck and just watched as I grabbed a toothbrush, poured some toothpaste on it and started to brush my teeth.

I saw him looking at me and I noticed how dark his eyebags really were, he had a lot of darker than I had ever had myself.

"If I am allowed to ask, do you happen to have insomnia?" I very carefully asked.

"I sure do. I hate very bit of it. Prevents me from sleeping and causes me to loose all interest on everything I usually find interesting." He replied with a yawn.

I went to the bathroom and spit the toothpaste out, rinsed the brush and left it to dry. Then I went back to my bedroom. And decided to let Joel know about my insomnia too.

"Oh, I also have some severe case of insomnia, prevents me from sleeping too. You must've got more severe case since your eyebags are a way darker than mine, am I right?" And yet again I was out of breath, damn it. I really need to speak on smaller sentences and give myself more time to breathe.

Joel just laughed and smirked. He shook his head a bit and then thought for a while before responding;

"I dunno about that but it could be possible." He looked really tired. 

I went under my bedsheets too, we were lucky that they were such a massive bedsheets.

I would not like to go and angler another pair of them somewhere from Carl's mansion in the middle of night.

Joel moved closer to me and cupped my face with his hands and kissed me gently. I responded to the kiss and it felt so amazing my mind went completely blank for a minute. I could not stop smiling, I felt like I was the happiest man alive at the moment.

Then he rubbed my cheek for a while until both of us were fast asleep.

We were so tired that we fell asleep as fast as a lightning bolt.


	8. Secrets...?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamski and Joel have a talk about their relationship.
> 
> Oh boi!
> 
> Carl makes a surprise visit to the Quest room. 
> 
> Carl is not prepared for what he will see.

**28th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Carl's bedroom**

**9:04AM**

One of Carl's home assistants started their new day. His name was Jonathan Roves, a tall, muscular, dark skinned man with dreadlocks. He was only seventeen years old. He had been assisting Carl for the past 2 months now, he knew what he was doing. He loved his job.

He was very naïve, he had barely any experience on any social life and he always focused on the most stubid details and never the ones he needed to. 

He had a spare key Carl had given him so he could come more easily and start his shift. He stepped inside, hung his coat and put his hat away. He then left his shoes by the door to prevent any dirt or snow from coming inside and mess the place.

He noticed that Carl was already awake and he was reading a book while still laying under his bedsheets. He noticed my arrival and smiled.

"Good Morning, Carl." He greeted kindly.

"Good Morning, Jonathan. It is nice to see you again." Carl smiled warmly.

"Do you perhaps prefer to get up now?" Jonathan asked.

Carl nodded and pushed his bedsheets away so Jonathan could pick him up and put him on his wheelchair. 

He was now on his wheelchair and he rolled to his own tiny bathroom to take his medication, he brushed his teeth and used a toilet.

Jonathan went by the kitchen and started to prepare Carl a healthy breakfast. He decided to make Carl a strawberry smoothie and a sandwich stuffed full with various types of vegetables.

Then he filled a teapan and put couple of tea leaves there, put the lid on it in order to boil it faster and to save energy. He started the gas and set a timer to ring in 6 minutes.

He noticed an empty pizza box, it was from a massive pizza. He got a bit worried that Carl have eaten it alone. All those calories would really harm such an old man. 

"Carl, you seem to have ordered a pizza lately."

"Oh, yes." Carl nodded and then continued;

"I forgot to tell you that one of my dear friend, Elijah Kamski is living with me for a while now."

Jonathan's eyes widened and he looked at Carl with shock and disbelief.

"You are saying you're friends with _the_ Elijah Kamski?!" He exclaimed with his eyes sparkling.

Carl laughed and looked at Jonathan with a smirk.

"And as I was saying, I ordered that pizza to be mainly his dinner, but I have to admit I ate a couple of slices myself. He ate the rest though." Carl smiled.

Jomathan was just looking at Carl with awe.

He could not believe that he could potentially meet one of the most ingenius people ever. He had only read about Kamski's futuristic innovations, he had seen his face but to actually meet him in person.

"You know...you could actually meet him if you really want to."

"Are you sure he won't mind?"

Carl just laughed and shaked his head a bit.

"I think he'll be fine with it." He assured Jonathan.

Jonathan then served Carl his breakfast and Carl offered him to make himself a sandwich too if he wished to. Jonathan smiled and decided to ate with Carl.

"Oh, by the way. Elijah and one of his...friend, Joel, they intended to build an Android yesterday." Carl knew that there were more than just friendship between those bois.

Jonathan just stared at Carl. 

"Really? Wow!"

Carl just rolled his eyes at Jonathan's still sparkling eyes.

"Yes. Joel is some kind of technician if I understood correctly." Carl took a bite of his sandwich.

Oh boi it was good!

"That sandwich is really good!" 

Jonathan smiled and thanked Carl.

"I woked up at 4AM to drink some water, and I heard that they were still up and working."

"Wow, they must be tired now, how long do you think they are going to sleep?" Jonathan wondered out loud. 

"Hmm...I would say at least till noon." 

Jonathan then sniffed the air and realized: "I smell smoke."

Carl's expression hardened.

"Damn those sons, they must've got drunk and decided to smoke whole lot of pack of cigarettes inside without opening any windows." Carl shaked his head and he was clearly upset.

"Is there any way to get the smoke out?" Jonathan asked.

Carl pondered for a moment.

"Maybe. You could open some windows and ventilate the rooms upstairs.

Jonathan nodded and went upstairs.

As he arrived the stink of cigarette smoke started to burn his nose. He did not feel good. He quickly opened some windows everywhere he could find. Then he apparently opened the Quest room door. He just stared at shock. 

There were an Android. It was such a beautiful being, it apparently was a female. But it did not have a head, its head was on another table, its skull was still open and it glowed blue light. It was such an amazing view. There were various types of tools laying everywhere, some blue liquid and plastic. 

Then he noticed two empty wine bottles and one glass. Wow they must've got drunk. Then he saw clothes everywhere. And then he saw them.

Elijah motherfucking Kamski was sleeping right in front of him. And...Joel, was it? He was sleeping with Kamski on a SAME bed. Maybe they were together, how would he know. He was just a kid.

And he had problems with prioritizing things so he always studied the most non relevant points.

They both had very dark eyebags. 

Both of them were under their massive blanket and looked like to be sleeping very peacefully. 

Then he noticed that both of them had multiple scars on their skin. He started to panic, he should not propably know about this detail.

But his curiosity winned. He stared at them.

Kamski had fully scarred arms, it was...something he did not expect from the genius. The scars were deep, he even had on his left hand on a bandage, it was a bit bloody. Holy hell! 

Joel however only had couple of faint scars on his inner wrists, and on his face.

He was scared, he should NOT know about this at all. 

And why the hell he even came closer to them, he should NOT be invading their privacy!

He backed up.

Now he was just studying them from distance, he would not dare to actually touch either of them. He would not get that far even with the extraordinary curiosity of his. 

He very quietly went out and closed the door. It was none of his business...but what if Carl did not knew about this? I needed to tell him, just in case. Kamski could be in danger!

He went back downstairs. Carl studied his expression and looked a bit worried. 

"What happened?" Carl asked.

Jonathan just stared at him and could not get any words out. He was silent for a while until he found the power to speak;

"Did...d-did you knew what Kamski does to his arms...? They were just...so full of cuts."

He put his hands over his mouth to prevent himself from screaming.

"Yes, fortunately I knew. Did he had any fresh?"

Jonathan nodded and told Carl about the bloody bandage on his left hand.

Carl just sighed and was silent for a couple of minutes.

"Kamski had a very tragic childhood, and a horrible ex-girlfriend...he's been traumatized enough to last a lifetime..." Carl sighed and he looked very sad.

"Will he ever get better?" Jonathan asked with pleading eyes.

"I personally thinks that yes, but it will take a lot of time and work." Carl looked like a father with a son who had lots of problems. Maybe Carl did think about Kamski as his own son.

"Is he making any progress...?"

"Yes, and now with the toxic people out of his life, he can be surrounded with kind and warm people." Carl had a determined expression on his face.

"And...I saw him sharing a bed with Joel. I know that I should not know about this, I just happened to open the door that leaded to Kamski's room." Jonathan shamefully admitted. 

Carl laughed and shook his head.

"It's none of our business to know about their private life. They would propably not like us stalking them any way." Carl smirked with a wink.

"You're right, we are all old enough to decide our lives. But what should I do with this information, I cannot possibly tell them that I know, can I?" Jonathan was now a bit anxious.

"I personally would just try to be as if I never knew about them." Carl smiled.

"I've got a lot to learn about adulthood apparently. I am an amatour." Jonathan joked with a smirk.

Carl just laughed and patted Jonathan's head.

"Yes, you really do. And you should try to focus on more sensible details." 

They both laughed for a while.

"I am going to take a look at them if they do not show up downstairs 3PM, just in case something is wrong." Carl told Jonathan.

Carl had a customized elevator he could use with wheelchair still on.

* * *

**28th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Quest Room**

**(Currently occupied by Kamski and Joel)**

**12:31PM**

I slowly woke up and the first thing that I saw was Joel. He was still peacefully sleeping right next to me. His hand rested on my stomach, it felt odd but nice.

Then I realized that fucking hell, my slimy hair had yet once again fallen on my face! My whole face was now oily, then I noticed that some of my hair is on Joel's neck. Fuck! Now he has to wash his neck because I am too lazy to just wash my goddamn hair...

I really itched for a cigarette now, but I did not want to disturb Joel's sleep. He looked so cute when he slept.

I very carefully sneaked out of the bed, used the bathroom and brushed my teeth.

I opened a window and lit a cigarette. I took a long drag and hold it in for a while before releasing it through my nose. I watched as it disappeared on the still cold air outside. I took another drag. I then turned my head arond at still sleeping Joel. He looked just so _cute!_

I took the last drag of my cigarette and dumped it away. I lit another cigarette and held it on my lips while constantly sucking it and releasing it through my nose. 

I did not realize that I had stared at him for multiple minutes until I realized that I still had the window open.

I took the last drag and dumped it away while closing the window. 

I decided to go back to sleep for a while. 

17 minutes later. 

I woke up again and was now a bit hungry. I took my phone and ordered via text message a chinese takeaway that would be delivered by a drone. 

15 minutes later the food arrived and I opened the window. Oh it smelled so good! 

I opened the box and began to eat it. 

I realized that Joel opened his eyes, he streched a bit and put his hand back on my stomach. He noticed the food I was eating, he then decided to squeeze my stomach and just _smirked_. 

I just stared at him with thoughtful expression. His smirk grew as he noticed my face. I found myself blushing only a second later. I continued to eat. 

I smiled at him with the same stubid smile as earlier.

"You know... I could share it with you." I offered. 

He looked at the food and stole my chopsticks. He tasted the food and I could see that he was loving it. 

I not long after stole the chopsticks back and continued to eat. He stared at the food and back at my face. I blushed. 

I ate the rest and put the box away. 

He apparently liked to tease me since he started poke me all over my body. I blushed again and tried to prevent him from doing that. 

He laughed and kissed my neck. He continued to kiss my neck and my collarbones, and I could not keep myself from constantly shivering. Then he bit me.

Ouch, that would definitely leave a mark!

It felt so good I could not resist it. He bit me again and this time more aggressively. Then he quitted the biting and replaced it with kissing. 

I got out of breath very soon after. I started to pant heavily and felt like I was going to overheat any given minute.

"Joel... give me ...a minute, ...okay?" I was so exhausted and out of breath that it was just pure luck that I was able to form any words.

He was now sitting right in top of me and he studied my expression for a while and chuckled.

"I cannot honestly believe that you really are that level out of shape...you really need to take better care of yourself." Joel gently told me while still constantly rubbing my stomach with his right hand.

And when I glanced at him, he was not at any better shape himself, what an evil hypocrate! I smirked at him.

"You... are not... in a...any better... shape... yourself, Mister Metsälä." I managed to breathe out.

He was impressed by the fact that I could pronounce his surname correctly.

He laughed. 

"I am very much aware of that fact. I however excercize _almost_ regularly, and I have been able to loose some weight lately." He came closer and moved my slimy hair from my face, as he touched my hair, an immediate regret showed on his face. I laughed at his expression.

"Eww...when was the last time you washed your hair?" He asked in disbelief.

I just blushed and tried to breathe.

"I do not... know. And I propably... don't even...wanna know." I still had difficulties to speak.

Joel didn't look very pleased. He wiped his now oily hand on the bedsheets in order to get rid of the oilyness.

Then he smirked and rubbed my cheek.

"You are going to wash it today, and I am here to make sure you actually are doing it." He looked at me very deeply into my eyes and then stole a kiss.

I then tried to sit up, he was very much preventing me as he was now laying on the top of me. He did not want me to get up. 

I just blushed as I noticed that I was pretty much trapped now. Joel just rested his head on his hands. His elbows pretty much sinked on my stomach and he just kept looking at my face with that fucking smirk.

"Joel, please. I really need to smoke right now." I begged him.

He thought for a moment before asking;

"How much do you usually smoke a day?" He asked.

"Uh...it depends on a day. More stressed or anxious I happen to be the more I smoke."

"Yeah, but like do you need to smoke every hour or is there some kind of time limit?"

I realized that I really did not have thought about it, like ever.

"I pretty much need to smoke one or two an hour. Sometimes more..." I took a breath and continued;

"That would be 1.6 to 3 packs a day." I took another breath and continued;

"Oh my god...I did not realize how much I actually smoke." I admitted. I felt terrible.

"Mmhm. That's a lot. I usually smoke a pack per day. Yes, that is still too much but I have been trying to smoke less." Joel was obviously feeling a bit anxious as he started to rub his own neck. 

I finally got the chance to sit up. I pulled him into a hug. Then I kissed his neck, he apparently liked it very much as he started to shiver slightly. I continued to kiss him passionately. Until I had to break the kiss and I breathed as much as I could before continuing.

I never really had a chance to give anyone my love...since they never really loved me.

I would not prefer to get my anxiety levels up, I wanted to enjoy this moment. 

I continued to hug him. He was rubbing his hand on my left side. I felt him squeeze the fat that was there, I decided to take my revenge.

As I was about to poke him, he unfortunately realized my plan. He grabbed me and made me laying flat on my bed. All I saw was that same ever growing teasing smirk. I laughed.

Then the thoughts I had earlier came back...I started to get anxious. All the memories that had the fear of reject and all the times people who were supposed to love me...they just never did.

As I started to get more and more anxious I started to feel the urge to harm myself. Luckily Joel noticed that and pulled me into a hug, I was now once again hugging him. 

I did not notice that I was crying until Joel carefully swiped my tears away with his thumb. He then cupped my face and kissed me. The kiss quickly deepened, and Joel was still holding my face with his hands. I put my own hands around his waist.

We had to break the kiss in order to breathe. We both panted and just looked in each other's eyes. I kissed him again. 

My hair was now completely down, I hated the oily feeling it left on my shoulders and back, Joel was still very disgusted about the fact that I did not remember the last time I washed it.

We were still kissing until I heard my door opening. Carl was there. We both noticed and aborted our act immediately.

We both were luckily still dressed and just sitting on the bed. The situation could've been worse. We just stared at Carl who unknowingly disturbed our little secret. He didn't look very surprised.

"Hey there, Carl. What brings you there?" I nervously asked.

Carl just smirked at us.

Joel looked terrified. 

Carl laughed and answered;

"I was just going to check on you guys but apparently you had better things to do." He winked at us.

Joel was very embarassed and I have never seen him as red as he was now.

"Okay...but as you may now know, I have found a person I really care for." I looked back at Joel. Joel smiled awkwardly. I might be a bit sadistic but I really loved his awkwardness so much. It was just so cute! 

"I very much approve your relationship, and I will give you my blessing." Carl smiled warmly. He was silent for a while then continued;

"Although I am very sorry that I disturbed whatever you were doing, and I will in the future remember to knock."

Joel looked to be on a bit better mood. He smiled at Carl.

"I will look forward to get to know you better, Carl. I will be visiting more often in the future." 

Carl nodded and took his leave and closed the door.

Joel looked at me for a bit. He still looked a bit uncomfortable with this situation.

"What the hell is wrong with people..." he sighed before continuing:

"We should lock the door next time." He sarcastically smirked.

I blushed and rested my head on his shoulder.


	9. Shampoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamski is having difficulties with washing his hair. 
> 
> Joel is making sure Kamski is heeding his instructions.
> 
> Oh boi...

**28th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Quest Room:**

**(Currently occupied by the bois)**

**5:03PM**

The atmosphere in the Quest room was getting a little bit better. Joel was still being a bit melancholic since Carl saw something he should not have seen.

Joel requested that we could continue with the work we were doing previously. Since the still not ready Android needed its head -and it wasn't completed yet.

I agreed and we put our lab coats back on...but Joel did not want to put his trousers back on; he was wearing only a t-shirt, a lab coat and boxers.

Like come on, what a tease!

I opened a window and lit a cigarette. I took a long drag of it and decided to keep the window open for a while.

I did not want to stand by the window so I decided to just smoke inside since the window was open. 

I went by the table where Joel was working on with an ocular unit while I continued to smoke. 

And he was smirking at me every time I even looked at him. It was nearly impossible to concentrate on the work I was _supposed_ to do. I was blushing so heavily all the time.

"Do you really have to do that?" I asked with an uncomfortable smile and took another drag.

Joel laughed and put down one of the ocular units on the table. Then he turned at me and stole my cigarette and took a drag before returning it back on my lips.

I just looked at him with unreadable expression. Then I just smiled shyly at him and took another drag. 

He looked at me like I was a fragile flower.

I blushed and before I realized I was already kissing him again. He just had something that attracted me to no end.

He deepened the kiss and I had nothing against it so I went with it. I had at some point break the kiss to get some air. I started to pant and I felt like I would not be able to breathe for a while. 

I took another drag and just tried to breathe but it was difficult once again. 

He put his hands around my non-existent waist and started to gently squeeze the fat that was very much there.

I did not know what to think of it but it felt nice though. He apparently liked the way my body was at currently which itself felt really weird. I did not think that anyone would find my obesity attractive.

I took the last drag of the cigarette and threw it away...and I did not care that it would probably burn a mark on the floor later on as it would continue to burn for a bit. 

He kissed me again and then for some reason moved one of his hands from my waist to my hair. The regret was immediate on his eyes. He broke the kiss and just looked at me with a thoughtful expression.

"You have to wash your hair, and you are going to do it now." He smirked.

I sighed and just exhaustively nodded.

"Fine...I'll do it. Wanna join?" I flirted.

He blushed and then nodded with the fucking smirk he nowadays usually had.

We walked to the bathroom and as I started to undress I saw Joel lit a cigarette and took a very desperate drag of his cigarette and very slowly released the smoke.

He looked like he had some withdrawal symptoms for not smoking and was suffering from a headache.

He took another drag and sighed in relief.

"Why do you prevent yourself from smoking if it really makes your life that difficult?" I asked

He took another drag and sighed. 

"As I've previously mentioned that I am trying to smoke less...and I am pretty sure that's the way." He admitted and took the last drag of his cigarette and dumped it on the bathroom counter.

Carl will kill us later because he did not prefer his mansion getting ruined by cigarettes.

As Joel looked at me again he blushed as I was now completely naked. 

Joel came closer and suddenly looked very sad. He apparently noticed that the self harm scars on my arms continued till my shoulders.

I thought he knew that there would be more...but apparently I was wrong.

He started to inspect them. Then he just looked my eyes and took my hands with his.

"I want you to know that I will always be there for you. Any dark moment you have, I will take care of you. I will never leave you alone with your problems." He continued to stare at me.

I felt my eyes get wet again and I felt as my tears started falling down. He came ever closer and hugged me very warmly. 

"Thank you, Joel. I love you, and I really mean it." I desperately told him as I continued to cry.

He kissed me again and started to rid my eyes from tears with his thumb.

I put my hands around his stomach and started to rub it with both of my hands. There just were so much to rub. I noticed that he was getting a bit uncomfortable and insecure about something.

"Joel, what's going on your mind?" I asked with a worried smile.

He looked away and he was avoiding my glance but as he realized that I still waited for an answer he sighed.

"The thing is...that I am embarassed of my body. I do not feel comfortable with all this weight." He finally told me. He looked anxious. I moved my hands from his stomach to his neck. 

"Why do you feel that way?" 

"I...öhm...the reason is...that all this extra weight is entirely my own fault...but I did not want it. I just was so depressed that the only thing that made me feel anything...was eating."

Joel looked like he was slowly but surely breaking inside. I saw his pain on his eyes. He did not cry. I have never seen him crying.

"If it holds such an important factor for you, I will help you to either loose weight or to accept yourself." I assured him.

He looked back at me and I saw as his expression went from anxious to thoughtful. He looked like his mind was thinking at full speed. He looked so incredibly ingenius. I was just diving through his eyes with my glance and smiling with that stubid smile of mine.

"Joel, you need to know that I will also support you no matter what. As you do to me, I really want to also take care of you." I cupped his face with my palms while forcing him to look at me again.

I saw something flickering on his eyes, I did not know what it was...but I felt like I've seen it somewhere before...

It looked like he was forcing something out from his mind no matter what. He still looked to be in pain.

I hugged him and started to rub his back. I felt him slowly getting calmer.

"Thanks, Kamski. I love you too." He came as close as he could before our stomachs got in the way and kissed me.

I returned to the kiss and put my hands on his hair. Oh my god! His hair was so smooth and silky. And it was CLEAN.

Then he poked my still naked body and pointed at my über greasy hair.

"But you must now begin to wash your hair. It cannot wait any longer for god's sake!" Joel playfully ordered.

I smiled awkwaridly and stepped in the bathtub and sat down on it. Joel turned the shower on and warm water came instantly.

I started to wash my hair with the warm water, I did NOT like the feeling at all since my hands got so fucking oily I was tempted to just quit doing it. Joel smirked at my facial expression and then laughed.

He took a shampoo bottle and squirted a lot of its content on the top of my head. He started to rub it on my scalp. The shampoo started to bubble, Joel continued to rub it all over my hair and scalp. He rinsed it off couple of times and poured more shampoo until all the grease was gone.

He rinsed my hair clean and took a towel from one of the bathroom counters and then he stopped. I instantly knew what he found. Oh shit, the knife! I did not remember to hide it better...

As I started to panic he turned around holding the knife carefully. He looked at it and back at me. He looked very sad and melancholic.

"You need to get rid of this knife." Joel sternly told me while looking deeply into my eyes.

I nodded and he took the knife with him and put it into his technician satchel. He then came back and gave me a towel to dry myself off with.

I first dried my body and I gave Joel a permission to desing my soon going to be wardrobe. He compelled and anglered a light blue t-shirt, a dark blue sweater, black trousers. I did not let him choose my boxers though...

I did not trust him that much though.

After I dressed I began to dry my hair with the same towel. I was brushing it while it was still wet to prevent any tangles from forming. After my hair was dry and straight again I just looked at it and it felt **amazing**!

I smiled at Joel and my eyes started to sparkle, I just loved how my hair felt on my scalp with all the grease finally gone.

He just smirked at me. 

"You should wear your hair down from time to time. Looks good." He pointed at my now shiny clean hair.

I smiled and I was sure that I looked like a child on a Christmas morning.

Joel just shaked his head and laughed.

Then his expression changed and he looked like he remembered something out of a sudden. He looked sad and like he missed something or someone.

"Hey, what's on your mind?" I very carefully asked.

He looked away and sighed. 

"I just remembered that...in two weeks I am going to return to Finland." He looked back at me and sighed before continuing;

"And I am going to spend a whole month there until I intend to come back to the States." He locked his eyes with mine.

I just stared at him and didn't know how to respond to that. 

"I would like to come with you, I have never visited Finland before."

He looked perplexed. 

"...Are you certain that you really want to go with me?"

I nodded. 

"Then our trip it is!" He smiled at me.

"Have you bought your ticket in advance or are you going to buy it soon since the planes will be full in no time?" I curiously asked.

"No, I have not." He smirked and then continued;

"And I am glad that I didn't since now there is possibility that I can buy us seats next to each other. And to book train tickets..."

"Where exactly do you live in Finland?" I asked since he mentioned that we would need to travel by train.

"I have a house in Ylöjärvi, Tampere." He smirked since I would have no idea how to pronounce those cities.

I looked at him in disbelief and tried to compute how the fuck I am supposed to say these words or better, WRITE them. 

"Why on earth do Finns have to pronounce all those things like that?" I looked at him with shock.

He just laughed. 

"We Finns do not find them any difficult to pronounce since we pronounce everything like that." He smiled with pride.

I just looked at him and smiled. 

"Is it really true that Finland has its forest coverage over 80% of whole fucking country?" I asked with awe since I have learned that fact while I was still studying in the university over 10 years ago.

He nodded and smirked. 

"Yes, and we love our forests and nature. We also appreciate the silence there."

"Do you live in the forest?" I asked with a great interest. 

He just laughed. 

"Pretty much yes, my house is surrounded by a lot of different kinds of trees and vegetation."

Woah, I could not wait to see his house and this forest he was talking about.

"Do your relatives live in Finland too?"

"Yes, my parents are living in Jyväskylä. And my other relatives are spread all around the country."

I looked at him in disbelief since there was yet again a city that I COULD NOT probably pronounce. 

"How do you even write that?" I looked at him in shock.

He smirked and told me that every word the Finnish language has is written exactly as it is pronounced. That makes a big difference since English was a total opposite. 

He gave an example, a word 'kynttilä' which means a candle is pronounced as:

K-Y-N-T-T-I-L-Ä.

Every letter is pronounced, Finns do not have a concept of silent letters. If they see an English word they however are able to pretty much pronounce it correctly unless it makes no sense how to pronounce it. They have to listen someone say it and then they can pronounce it more correctly.

Finns also learn English in school, they start learning it by the age of 8 or 9 and will continue learning it all throughout until they graduate. Some will never stop learning it.

Finland also has a second native language, Swedish. Swedish is also taught in school, and everywhere one goes they are justified in getting service on their native language.

It also possible to survive in Finland if you only speak English since Finns are very good at it.

I just looked at him with awe. 

"Wow, you guys are awesome."

He smiled. 

"Shall we continue with this Android since it needs its head?" Joel asked with a smirk.

"Sure, let's make this baby shine!" I enthusiasticly agreed with him. 

He just shook his head and laughed. 


	10. Regrets and Bumblebees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe finally gets her body back!
> 
> Joel needs a break.

**28th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Quest Room (Currently occupied by the bois)**

**9:36PM**

The Android body was finally entirely completed and both of the bois desperately needed a break from work.

They have been working almost non stop for three days and were now so done with it.

Kamski went by his laptop and turned it on with a quick swipe. He was very pleased with the results they have been able to accomplish with the Android body thus far. 

Soon it was Chloe who greeted them and Kamski gave her all the instructions she needed to make a successful memory transfer from the fail safe to the mind palace of Android body.

"Are you ready?" Kamski asked with enthusiasm.

"Yes, you may now connect one of the heads of the transfer wire to the neck of the body."

Kamski did as she requested and put the another head to the suitable port on his laptop to begin the transmission.

"Is everything ready for the full memory transfer?" Joel asked still a bit unsure if it actually would work that easily.

Chloe smiled and nodded. 

Kamski nervously smiled and put the timer on it for 5 seconds. 

"Okay, I will now start the transfer."

Chloe just smiled and closed her eyes. She seemed to be absolutely certain that the transfer would succeed. 

"How long it would take to get to 100%?" Joel asked with uncertain expression. 

Kamski thought for a while then began with the answer;

"There will be a 2 hour session where she would be absolutely unresponsive to living world...and after that it just depends how much information needs to be transferred."

He took a breath and continued:

"With all those information from over a decade's worth...it should take about 12 more hours." Kamski answered with a stressful smirk. 

Joel shook his head and put his hands on top of his head. He just sighed and looked very done with all this. 

"If that's the case then I am going to go home and sleep." He told with a yawn.

"I intend to sleep as well if I am able to get any." Kamski smiled with an exhausted expression and continued:

"Will you be there when the transfer is done?"

Joel just shrugged and began to pack his stuff. He put all the equipment back in his satchel and closed it.

Then he put all of the remaining Thirium310, all leftover biocomponents and wires back to the kit and closed it as well. 

Before he left he gave a good night's kiss on Kamski's forehead and took his leave. 

Kamski just blushed and waved at him. 

He opened a window and watched as Joel was now walking down the street.

Kamski just watched the cold black icy sky and lit a cigarette. He took a very long drag of it and slowly released the smoke. It felt extremely good. 

After he had smoked and dumped the cigarette away he closed the window and took his lab coat off. 

Then he collapsed on his bed and fell asleep immediately. He had over two nights worth of sleep deprivation in row and that was the reason when he usually could sleep without any problems.

* * *

**28th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's Apartment**

**10:57PM**

As Joel started approach his light green house he sighed with relief. He haven't been at his house for a while. He had unknowingly spent several days at Kamski's and now he was for sure going nowhere for a while at least.

His satchel and kit felt extraordinary heavy since he was so exhausted and he even began to doubt that he was going to make it to his home at all.

His apartment complex was a 9 floor tall building and his apartment would be at 8th floor. There was an elevator of course but he had long ago decided to be against using it.

Using stairs was not the best thing if one decided to think about it more, but it really helped him to get in better shape.

He started to climb the stairs up and it seemed to him that everyone had already got to their homes and was for sure now preparing themselves for a good night's rest.

Not a single home had its lights on any longer, luckily the staircase was well lit.

By the time he had climbed to the 8th floor he felt like all of his remaining energy was drained from him. 

And he had to stop for a while to catch his breath. He panted heavily and was fortunate enough not to have any more levels to climb.

As he approached his door and started to angler his keys he noticed that someone had left him a package. 

He didn't remember that he had ordered anything. He grabbed it from the ground and studied it a bit. 

It was a quite small package, it looked like to be some kind of a plate. And then he checked who had sent it. 

It was from Carl Manfred.

Joel looked at it perplexed, he had no idea what to think about it or what to do with it.

Should he open it today or what...?

He decided against it since he had no energy to actually admire anything now. He put it in his satchel.

He then opened his door and stepped in. 

He closed the door while locking it. Then he hung his lab coat and put his satchel and kit away on a kitchen table.

Then he took a glass from a cabinet and filled it with lingonberry juice and opened a window. He took a sip from the juice and lit a cigarette.

He took a long desperate drag of his cigarette and just held it inside his lungs for a while until slowly releasing the smoke.

His neighbors at the 9th floor hated that his smoke would potentially get into their apartments as well if they had a window open at the same time as he smoked.

But they never had their windows open at night-time so it was very much easier to smoke at night since no-one would thread to kick his ass next time they see him.

He then took his last drag and dumped the cigarette away. He would need to get a jar so no one would complain about the cigarette stubs on the ground all the fucking time.

He then finished his juice and put the glass away. He almost forgot to close his window but he closed it with a tired swipe.

He then looked at his satchel with the package in it and sighed. He would open it as soon as he wakes up tomorrow.

He felt awful since he hadn't been brushing his teeth for days since he forgot to take his toothbrush with him. 

He had the urge to just skip it but decided against it since his teeth would rot in no time if he keeped this up.

So he grabbed a toothbrush, rinsed it and poured a bit of xylitol toothpaste on it. 

_Xylitol is a some kind of birch tree sugar that prevents cavities from forming._

_Every Finn uses it and it tastes good._

Joel brushed his teeth with great care since he would not want to go to the dentist any time soon. He had always taken good care from his teeth and would not change his mind about importance of teethcare.

He then spit the toothpaste out and rinsed the toothbrush. He had a small mirror on his bathroom and decided to take a look at himself. 

He could not believe how dark his eyebags have gotten. Unbelievable, he looked actually like a dead person, that's nice! He had no memory that they had ever been _this_ dark before, they were so dark violet of color that one could mistake it with black. 

His usually bright green eyes now looked dull caused by the tiredness. Well his dark eyebags gave some nice contrast to his eyes usually but now he just looked like a corpse. 

He sadly touched the largest scar on his face and regretted very deeply that he had done something like that to himself.

He then realized that it's been days since the last time he had showered. His hair was greasy and he felt sweaty. He would shower as soon as he got some sleep first. 

He then used the bathroom and went straight to his bedroom and flop on top of his bed and fell asleep immediately.

* * *

**29th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's Apartment**

**10:11AM**

11 hours later he woke up as his phone started to ring. He checked the caller's ID and it was Kamski, of course it was him. 

He tiredly answered the phone:

 _"...Yes?"_ He asked with a yawn.

Kamski just laughed and got straight to the point:

 _"Chloe got her body back, it's absolutely fascinating!"_ He sounded very excited.

 _"And you decided to inform me that now? I was sleeping!"_ Joel pointed out. 

Kamski just laughed again

 _"Hey, I am very sorry that I woke you...but I thought you wanted to know."_ He sounded a bit sad now.

Joel sighed. 

_"Yeah, I am very pleased to know that our project succeeded...but next time text me and when I wake up I'll call you, okay?"_

_"Sure! Are you coming to see Chloe any time soon?"_

_"Uhhh...maybe in two days or so. Right now all I need is rest."_

_"Oh I hear you, catch some sleep if you can."_

_"Thanks, I'll text you later tonight...I'll go back to sleep now..."_

And he ended the call. He was still incredibly tired despite all those hours he slept last night. He needed to eat something before turning back to sleep.

He stretched all his limbs and oh boi they ached. He would really use a hot shower now. He noticed that he had been so tired last night that he had been sleeping in exact same position the whole damn night.

He then sat up on his bed and suddenly realized that his head was killing him. He hated that the only way to stop the headache was smoking.

He wanted to quit smoking but all those headaches it would cause...it would be incredibly hard to actually quit it.

Yes he could survive a couple of days without it but then he would end up smoking since all those withdrawal symptoms would make him feel awful. And he would fail. 

He just sighed.

Fucking nicotine, he made such a big mistake in his life when he started smoking by the age of 17. It felt like a good idea then...but now? Not so much.

He could try and keep up smoking less month by month. He had already made a good progress. He had been able to stick with one pack **max.** per day.

But his goal would be that he would never need to smoke again.

He stood up and made his bed. Went to the kitchen and opened its window.

It was yet again snowing outside. Huge snowflakes, and lots of them. Warm yellowish sunlight seeked through all holes the now mostly clouded sky had. The sunlight made beautiful very clear rays that lit up the white blanket of snow, its light very peacefully danced on the ice crystals of the snow. 

He just stared at the sun rays and snowflakes with great interest. Oh, how he would like to just go outside and maybe see some people playing in the snow. Then he lit a cigarette and just took a long drag, he just wanted the headache to get lost.

Although the feeling he gets when he smokes...feel dangerously good, it's highly addictive. He didn't really feel like to quit it since it feels so good...but he wants to, he wants to know better ways to get that feeling than...uh without doing some harmful shit to himself. He very slowly released the smoke. 

Then he took another drag and decided to take a look at his kitchen. It was a quite small and needed to be cleaned soon since he hadn't been at the house for a while and forgot to wash the dishes.

He didn't actually even intend to spend several nights at Kamski's but...hey, things can escalate, _right?_

He had several large plants there, a large monstera deliciosa with lots of holes on its leaves which was on the floor since it is taking up a lot of space, an enormous peace lily in the middle of the kitchen table...and a lot of petunias hanging from the ceiling. The petunias with various colored flowers, he absolutely loved them.

Then he remembered the package he received yesterday and decided to take a look at it later...he had absolutely no idea what would be inside of it. It looked like a plate but with its cover still on, it was hard to tell.

There were just so much to do...he would need to start from somewhere. He decided that after he finishes his smoking, that he needed to prepare something to eat. After that he would take a shower...and then he would take a look at the 'mystery package' if he still had any energy left. 

And then finally be able to continue sleeping.

He took the last drag from his cigarette and dumped it away while closing the window. His headache was fortunately gone and he felt more like himself. 

He opened his fridge and took a look inside. There weren't much to choose from...but there were raw chicken meat and some vegetables. The chicken meat was still usable as it didn't have any signs of mold or anything else wrong with it. 

The vegetables were also still fresh. He chose tomatoes, a half of a cucumber, green beans and a lettuce.

He would make a chicken salad. 

He took a frying pan and poured some olive oil on it and turned on his electric stove.

He took a chopping board meant for meat and started to cut the chicken into small pieces with a very sharp knife. 

He waited until the oil started to warm up and put the chicken meat on the pan. He took a wooden spatula which was made from birch and started to fry the chicken.

While the chicken was starting to heat up he took another chopping board meant for vegetables and took a regular knife. He took 4 tomatoes and at first cut them all in half, then cut the halfs in half and continued until the pieces were small enough for the salad.

Then he chopped the cucumber into very similar sizes as the tomatoes were. He took the lettuce and ripped it in half and put the other half back to fridge. He didn't need the whole lettuce. 

He cut the lettuce and small pieces and took a bowl and out all now small vegetables which he had chopped into it. He then took a wooden spoon and started to mix those three ingredients so it would be a good salad. He then poured some of the green beans into the salad. And mixed. 

He then decided to take a look at the chicken. He took the spatula and cut one of the chicken pieces in half to check if there would be any pink color left. There was none, so the chicken was safe and ready to eat.

He took another bowl and poured all the chicken meat from the pan into the bowl.

The meat needed to cool down a bit before adding it into the salad. He took both of the bowls and put them on his kitchen table. 

He needed to wash all the dishes now, and now that the meat needed to cool down, there would be time for that. 

After he had put all his now clean dishes into a specialized cabinet made for drying dishes that he had brought from Finland, he checked the chicken and now it was only a bit warm so it was okay.

He mixed the meat with all other ingredients and started to eat it. He really liked it. He then poured himself a glass of cranberry juice.

He was almost finished eating until his phone rang.

It was for sure one of his fellow workers. He was a bit perplexed as why would they call him instead of Kamski, but he answered without further hesitation. 

_"Yes?"_ He asked with a questioning tone. 

_"Hey, it's me Oliver Williams. Uh, do you happen to have time to talk about our project?"_ He sounded very excited. 

_"...sure? What about it?"_

_"You know, all the Tower gone and all..."_ He was now being very secretive. 

_"Get to the point, please."_ Joel told him a bit firmly, he was in no mood for this. 

_"The thing is...that there have been an slight increase in the amount of progress! There now is a building where we could continue to work and it's amazing!"_ He was almost shouting with excitement. 

Joel just laughed a bit since Oliver's excitement was sometimes a bit fun to experience. 

_"That's good news."_ He was now smiling himself. 

_"You should absolutely come by and see yourself as soon as your shift will start!"_

_"Absolutely, I will be back to work on Monday next week."_

_"Oh, that's all, see you soon!"_

And he ended the call.

This world needs more people like Oliver, he always has that kind of energy that uplifts everyone's spirit. 

Then he realized that he had forgotten to ask Oliver about the reason why he chose to call him instead of Kamski...it was weird. 

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. Oh God, He was still extremely tired as hell. Like how long would he need to sleep until he felt any better?

He just shook his head and put his dishes away.

He really needed to adjust his sleeping schedule, it was just absolutely absurd how ridiculous way it was fucked up right now. There is no way he would continue with this.

He stretched his arms again and grimaced as they popped. It was definitely not healthy. 

He then went to the bathroom and decided to just take the shower so he could go back to sleep as soon as possible. 

He took his purple turtleneck off and threw it in the laundry basket. He then realized that it was almost completely full...fuck. He would need to do laundry soon, he'll do it tomorrow.

He then took all of his other clothes off and threw them as well into the basket. He then stepped in the shower and turned it on.

Luckily it was instant hot water this time and none of the previous surprises that hahaa fuck you, there will be only cold water left because all of your fucking neighbors have used it all...

He hated that they all had one big hot water tank...and not singular hot water tanks for each of them...like it was supposed to be.

But hey, you can't get _everything_.

He took a shampoo bottle and started to wash his hair, he hated the greasy feeling. And he would be a fucking evil hypocrite if he decided to rock a greasy hairstyle, not that he even liked it at all. 

He then washed everything else and rinsed his hair clean. He then turned the shower off and stepped off, he then mopped the floor dry. 

He took a light orange towel and dried himself. 

He didn't favor the way he looked like and was working on it to get back in better shape. 

Couple of years back he began very depressed...because his sister died unexpectedly. And he did not take it well. He and his sister were always together, they told each other everything. They were supporting each other and helping to cope with the shit life brings you.

He tried to talk about it to various mental health experts such as psychiatrists and psycholigists. But all it did was...make his life worse...he had to over and over again talk about things that made his life very difficult to bare.

He soon became suicidal, his mind was so dark all light everything else life had just vanished on its dark husk. The light rays warmed his soul a bit though but that was all they really managed to do. Nothing made any difference.

He had been employed to CyberLife since 2022 and was working as a scientist, and one of his experiments exploded and some of glass from a glass jar made damage on his face. The first scar was the one he has on his right cheek.

He was a bit shocked that the cut on his cheek felt good as it continued to bleed. He quickly got addicted to the feeling and was always hoping for an explosion. He had more scars on his face soon after.

Then, on purpose he blew up yet another glass jar and a very large shard of glass ricosheted and made a out dangerously close to his left eye. It was a miracle that the eye didn't burst.

The cut was so deep that it continued to bleed for several days from time to time. It eventually closed up but the scar was so wide and deep that it would remain pink forever.

The other scars on his face would as well remain pink. He regretted very much that he chose to ruin his beautiful face. 

Soon after he really wanted to feel that sensation again and decided to slit his wrists. It didn't feel the same, he didn't get as powerful feeling from it, so he eventually just quitted it. He had to replace it somehow, he began to eat a lot and he hated himself even more during the time he forced himself to eat a way too much. He felt like trash, he didn't want to be like thi so he tried to get help yet again.

He then met a therapist who really knew how to help him, he eventually got better but it took much time and effort.

He is still recovering from body dysphoria caused by overweight, he still has depression but a much lighter version of it. And his melancholic nature is not helping very much.

He then banished those memories away, dried his hair and started to brush it. 

He liked his hairstyle, it was just so _him_.

He then remembered that he still needed to text Kamski and open that damn package...he just wanted to go back to sleep. His body still was recovering from all those all-nighters.

He put a bathrobe on and exited the bathroom. He went by the kitchen window and opened it and lit a cigarette.

He would as well open the package now as he had no better things to do since he was having his smoke break. He left the window open, he would close it later.

He took a drag of his cigarette and held it on his lips while constantly sucking it, he took a knife and opened the package. He stopped for a while and began tearing the package apart more gently since it looked like a very fragile item and he did not want to break anything.

As he took the item out of its cover he just looked at it with pure shock. 

...it was a bombus terrestris, an earth bumblebee queen. It was still alive and well as she had its own container with lots of nutricious honey. It was so fluffy and cute as she was now sleeping. 

He felt glad that he hadn't awakened her up by an accident. He took the last drag from his cigarette and dumped it out from the window and closed it.

He then opened the lid of the container and he noticed as the bumblebee reacted to the sudden movement. She buzzed her wings together to warn him not to harm her. As he very carefully tried to let the bumblebee sniff his left index finger, the bumblebee raised her right leg up as to warn him yet again not to come any closer. She was obviously very terrified.

He huffed and let the bumblebee very slowly get used to his presence, minutes went by and she very slowly climbed on his finger. He decided to let her take a look at his petunias.

She was noticeably very excited about the colorful flowers and she began to inspect them more closer. She flew from his finger and lingered around the flowers for a while until she landed on a purple petunia flower. She went by the flower's tunnel and sucked some its nectar. He just very fascinated watched as the bumblebee queen started to inspect more and more flowers.

Then at some point she returned on her container and went inside on her nest to rest.

He put the lid back and closed the container, it had holes on it so she would not suffocate. He then yet again checked the package cover and found out that Carl had ordered this particular bumblebee from Germany.

He did not expect to get a pet bumblebee.

But hey, she is adorable and as the spring comes he will buy more beautiful flowers for her to consume their nectar and hopefully raise her own children.

He then took the bumblebee container with him and went by his bedroom dresser and put the container on it. He smiled at the thought of waking up at her buzzing.

He then took his phone and went by his contacts list to find Kamski, when he found his name he pressed 'dial'.

Kamski answered right up.

 _"Oh, Joel! What's up?"_ He sounded happy.

 _"Hey, Kamski! You have to see what I've got!"_ Joel smirked one of his most gigantic smirks.


	11. Chloe needs some clothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joel and his pet bumblebee are going to meet Chloe.
> 
> Joel is very sleep deprived. 
> 
> Kamski has been up for a way too long and he had some consequences due to lack of sleep.
> 
> Joel gets socially anxious.
> 
> Chloe is her happy self.

**29th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's Apartment**

**2:55PM**

Kamski had invited Joel for a visit. He had to tell Kamski that no, he needed to sleep first. He felt bad that he had to refuse Kamski's request. 

Kamski sounded sad on the phone since he had to wait potentially another 12 hours until Joel was energized enough to get anything done.

Joel just sighed and rolled his eyes. He was a way too tired to do anything right now.

He ended the call and just laid on his bed.

He had multiple blankets there. All green but every one of them was a different shade of green. There were one very dark green and a very light green one, and every shade of green imaginable. 

He had a lot of blankets. Maybe too much of them.

He grabbed the darkest one and pulled it to cover his body with. Then he put his hand on his stomach and just rested it there. 

He closed his eyes and felt the exhaustion on his eyes lids. They felt very heavy and he didn't even try to keep them open. 

He tried to fall asleep but every time he started to slowly make his way to the dream world he woke up. 

It happened multiple times and after 3 hours of trying he eventually gave up.

He sighed in frustration and put one of his hands on his face to cover up his eyes from the sunlight.

He just laid on his back and ran his hand around his face, he hated when he was unable to sleep.

He stretched his hands and yawned.

As he was unable to sleep he would as well get some work done. 

He rolled on his side and took his laptop from the nightstand. He put two pillows behind his back as he sat up on the bed. He then put blanket back on and the laptop on the top of it.

He opened it and logged in. He had many still unfinished projects that should be ready due next month.

He knew that Kamski was the one who needed to work on those projects but since kamski hadn't been able to make any progress as he was on a vacation, so Joel needed to lead the team. 

He yawned again and started to work on those projects. He realized that he should have his team to help him with those 

He made a few calls and instructed his team members to work with certain topics of the whole deal. 

He then took out his tablet and started to design a new synthetic organ, a human kidney. There was a significant shortage of kidneys and patients of kidney failure were waiting for a kidney transplant with no real success since there weren't enough kidneys for everyone. 

Some even had to make an order from Russia to get a kidney. Most of those cases were highly illegal and some even had complications since the kidneys they had ordered didn't match the type of tissue their bodies were made of. Many of those cases lead to death caused by an aggressive rejection of the transplant. 

It was really hard to calculate everything correctly since no mistakes were allowed to be made. 

After 4 hours of working he got very stressed out and sighed in frustration. He hadn't been able to make that much of a progress.

He decided that a smoke break would do him some good.

He had disabled all fire alarms in his apartment and decided to just smoke inside this one time. He had no motivation to get up and open a window. He was feeling a bit melancholic yet again. And lazy. 

So he lit a cigarette and held it on his lips while constantly taking drags of it as he typed. He then took it by his fingers and released the smoke very slowly.

He wad pretty sure the bumblebee didn't like the smoke very much as she started to buzz very loudly as soon as she sensed the smoke.

He felt bad that she had to stand it. He made a mental note not to smoke inside again. He however continued to smoke as he was not just going to throw the cigarette away since it still had some left.

He would really have to get a jar, the amount of cigarette stumps that were on the ground right below his window outside was just outright ridiculous.

He then took one last drag of his cigarette and stumped it on the nightstand. Nasty habit indeed. 

Joel just sighed and looked at the all still unfinished stuff. He felt really sad that he had no inspiration to actually continue any of them at the moment. 

He would need to continue later. 

He closed his laptop and put it aside. He then felt a wave of tiredness hitting him right to his face. He felt extremely tired and just laid back down on his back, made some adjustments on his blanket and closed his eyes.

He fell asleep immediately. He felt all stress that he had on his mind and body to disappear to thin air. He felt very good and he cherished it.

* * *

**30th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's Apartment**

**11:49 AM**

Joel slowly opened his eyes and he felt very good. He hadn't slept this long for ages. He just laid on his bed and put his hands on the sides of his belly. 

He felt very hungry since he hadn't eaten for a while. Then he remembered that he had barely any ingredients left in his fridge.

He sighed and just started to think what on earth he would eat since he would need to eat only healthy food as often as possible. He had a few cheat days a week but he would like to cut some of those out as well.

Joel decided to call Kamski and see what he was up to if he even was awake.

He called but Kamski didn't pick up the phone.

It felt strange.

He had this feeling that something was wrong.

He decided to call Carl, he was relieved that he answered immediately:

 _"Hello?"_ Carl anwered.

_"Hey, it's me, Joel. Have you any idea what is going on with Kamski, is he there with you?"_

_"Yes, he is. Is something wrong?"_

_"I have a bad feeling that something is wrong, is it okay if I come for a visit?"_

_"Sure, I'll be waiting for you."_

He ended the call and took his bathrobe off and dressed. He then grabbed his jacket and put it on, put his shoes back on and then look his leave.

He was still hungry but right now he had better things to do.

* * *

**30th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**12:31PM**

He arrived at the Mansion and lit a cigarette. He felt very stressed about the possibility that something very bad had happened to Kamski and he may have done something bad to himself.

He took a desperate drag of his cigarette and held the smoke in for a while until slowly releasing the smoke. He then held the cigarette on his lips while constantly taking drags of his cigarette.

He then took the last drag of the cigarette and dumped it away.

He walked to the door and ringed the doorbell.

Apparently Carl had an assistant since it was them answering the door. 

"Hey, is Carl there?" Joel asked.

"He sure is, come inside!" The assistant told him with a smile.

Joel came inside and hung his coat. Then Carl came by and he looked a bit worried but he still smiled. Carl's smile looked a bit fake and Joel didn't like it at all. He just slightly frowned at Carl.

"Carl, is Kamski alright?"

"I think he is not, but I also think that he needs to see you."

Joel just nodded and went upstairs.

As he was walking on the hallway he was going through every possible scenario on his head. He shaked the thoughts away as he was now standind right in front of Kamski's door.

He sighed and knocked on it. 

He heard someone coming to answer the door. It surprised him that it was Chloe.

"Hey, Chloe. Is Kamski alright?" Joel anxiously asked.

Chloe sadly smiled and shaked her head. She then opened the door and stood out from the way so Joel could step inside.

Kamski was laying on his bed and he was apparently sleeping. He looked so exhausted that it was a miracle that he was even alive.

"Chloe, what happened to him?" Joel asked.

"He did not heed my advice to get some sleep, and I can say that he tried at some point but he didn't succeed at all." Chloe replied with a sad tone.

"Yes, I can see that. But how did he manage to fall asleep then?"

Chloe shook her head and she looked a bit amused.

"He fainted and I put him on the bed to ensure that he had the most comfortable sleeping position as possible."

" _Fainted_?"

"Yes, I suspect that he had too much sleep debit and he fainted under its pressure."

"Oh...that is going to be painful."

Chloe looked surprised and she was staring at Joel with a worried expression.

"If one faints due exhaustion, they will fall asleep immediately as you may already know, but the sleep is so deep that it hurts one's head. He will wake up with a terrible head ache." Joel explained to Chloe with sad yet professional tone.

"Oh no, what can I do to help him to get better?" She asked.

"As soon as he wakes up, give him a couple of pain killers and make sure he drinks enough water in order to ensure he stays hydrated."

"Got it. But have you any clue how long he will be asleep?"

"I would not know for sure but if I have to guess I'll say that he will be asleep for another 12 hours."

Chloe sighed and she looked like she didn't want to be left alone since Kamski will be out for half a nychthemeron.

"Hey, Chloe..."

"Yes?"

"Uh...would you like to spend some time with me since I can see that you don't want to be left alone...?"

Chloe's expression brightened and she smiled very brightly.

"Sure, Joel. I would like to get to know you better."

Joel looked a bit disturbed by the fact that Chloe was now looking staight to his eyes and she was still smiling at him. Joel formed a very tiny smile, it was almost non-existant.

Chloe noticed the smile and she smiled back and closed her eyes.

"So, ...uh, would you like to come at my place...or what?"

"Sure, Joel. Let's go."

Joel looked uncomfortable but he just nodded.

"Let me leave a message to Kamski first, I do not want to worry him."

"Yes, you do that. By the way, do you happen to have any clothes that you could use since it is very cold outside." 

Chloe only had a blue dress and light purple wool socks on.

"No, I do not." Chloe looked a bit down since she realized that there was now a possibility that she couldn't come with Joel.

"I can give you my coat, I'll be fine without it since my house isn't actually that far away..."

Chloe looked back at him and she was now smiling very grateful expression.

"Thank you, you are very kind."

Joel just smiled back and then he realized that Chloe would need to get shoes since her socks would get ruined by the snow and ice if she were to walk with him to his apartment.

"Chloe, do you have any shoes that you could use?"

"Yes, Kamski had my old shoes still with him, they are a bit ruined but I can use them and buy another pair later."

Chloe was looking very happy.

"Okay, good. Put the shoes on and if you are ready to leave then let's go."

Chloe nodded and put her shoes on. She was now following Joel as he walked on the hallway to the downstairs.

As they went back downstairs Carl was in the kitchen with his assistant.

"Hey, Carl."

"Joel, did you check on Elijah?" Carl looked a bit worried.

"Yes, he was just sleeping as he fainted due exhaustion. He is fine but he will be having an aggressive headache as soon as he wakes up." Joel awkwardily told Carl.

"Thank god...I am glad that he is well. What are you and Chloe up to?"

"Oh, we were just planning to spend some time to get to know each other better."

"Okay, when will Chloe be back?" Carl asked with a smile.

"In 12 hours or so." Chloe answered on Joel's behalf.

"Okay, see you later Chloe, Joel." Carl smiled.

Joel nodded and went by his coat and offered it to Chloe. She smiled and put it on. Joel opened the door and let Chloe go first and then he step outside and closed the door.

As he was now walking right behind Chloe, he took a pack of cigarettes out and took one to his lips and lit it. He took a drag of it and held the cigarette on his fingers. 

Chloe turned her head to look at what was going on. She frowned as she saw the cigarette and the smoke but she didn't say anything.

The coat was a way too big for her but she looked so cute on it that Joel didn't mind the size difference at all. 

He felt a bit disturbed that Chloe was very naive and someone with bad intentions could hurt her without her noticing a single thing.

He then took the last drag of the cigarette and dumped it away. 

She shaked her head at Joel and she didn't look pleased with that. 

Chloe didn't seem to favor his habit of throwing the stumps away instead of putting them to a bin.

Joel sighed and yet again thought about getting a jar so he wouldn't have to ruin the yard with the cigarette stumps.

He would take a look at his kitchen cabinets as soon as he got home to find out whether there were any jars that he could use. If not then he would go and buy one suitable for this _activity_.

Then Joel remembered that he needed to do some grocery shopping and mentally slapped himself for not thinking about it before visiting Kamski. Now he would either need to take Chloe with him or leave her on his apartment while he did the shopping.

Chloe didn't really have any suitable clothing on but her dress. And it would raise suspicion if she were to go to the store wearing his coat and only light clothing under it as it was fairly cold outside. 

And she had her LED, androids were not as commonly used back then and humans were very wary of them. They didn't favor the idea of humanoids living and working amongst them and on top of that, they didn't like the idea of android not technically being alive.

Well...they were and are alive but Amanda didn't want to grant them their freedom, things are going to change as Kamski and Joel now have full custody of android development and producing.

"Uh, Chloe?"

Chloe stopped and turned around to look at Joel.

"Yes?"

"What would you think about if we were to get you some suitable clothing?"

"I would've very much liked it, why?" Chloe looked very curious.

"Well...I need to do some grocery shopping and was thinking that if I were to take you with me, you'll have to have some actual clothing on..." Joel sighed.

"Oh, sure thing Joel, what store had you in mind?" Chloe smiled and winked at Joel.

Joel just smiled and was now thinking that maybe this day isn't as bad as he previously thought.

"I honestly know nothing about women's clothing, so...uh. Have you got any idea?" Joel awkwardily admitted.

Chloe giggled and started to search cybernetically some information.

"Well, I found one!"

"Okay...and how far is it?"

"Only 4 kilometres away. Will you be okay walking there?"

"Yes, don't worry."

"Okay, we shall then proceed the journey." Chloe smiled and started to navigate.

* * *

**30th January 2028**

**Detroit Downtown**

**Savvy Chic clothing store**

**2:39PM**

Chloe proudly announced that they were here as soon as she saw the store's logo. Joel just smiled and he felt happy that Chloe would have some actual clothing very soon. He then realized that Chloe might not have a bank account and Kamski was still fainted...there was a high propability that he would need to buy the clothes for her.

Joel just sighed and decided that it was no bid deal.

He was still worried about Kamski, he should not just faint like that. He had many problems, and Joel just hoped that he would be able to support Kamski.

He felt that if he was not able to support him, he didn't know what to do...

Chloe then looked at Joel and saw his mildly defeated facial expression.

"What is on your mind, Joel?"

Joel sighed and looked at Chloe staright to her eyes.

"I am worried about Kamski..."

"I understand, I am very worried about him as well."

"I just hope that I could support him as much as he needs."

"Hey, you are an excellent boyfriend for him, he couldn't have a better one." Chloe assured.

Joel just slightly nodded.

"Don't doubt yourself, Joel." Chloe patted him on his shoulder and proceed to enter the store only to be stopped by Joel.

"Wha-" Chloe didn't even had a time to react as Joel stopped him,

Joel adjusted Chloe's hair to cover up her LED just in case someone were to notice it. Chloe just looked a bit puzzled but she smiled at Joel because he propably saved her from many difficult situations.

"Thanks, I completely forgot that I needed to cover it up."

Then they entered the store. Chloe looked amazed by the amount of clothes there were. She propably have never seen that much clothing in her life.

Chloe made a list of types of clothimg she would need and proceeded to look for them.

She found a couple of t-shirts of white color, a navy blue leather jacket, a pair of black trousers, a white winter jacket with synthetic fur covered hood, a 3 pairs of black socks and a pair of tennis shoes.

Then she came back to Joel and showed him what she found.

Joel looked at the clothes. 

"Chloe, do you happend to have a bank account?" Joel asked Chloe with a hint of doubt on his eyes.

Chloe just giggled ans answered:

"Yes, Kamski made me one just in case I need something. It has 2,1 billion USD on it, so don't worry about it." Chloe smiled with her eyes closed.

Joel just looked at her with a grin. He knew that Kamski had a way too much money but to actually hear thay he had given Chloe a 2 billion dollars just like that...it was unbelievable.

"Okay, go and purchase those clothes so we can go to the grocery shop." 

Chloe nodded and went to the cash register to wait for the salesperson to attend it.

Joel decided to go outside the store and wait while the android buys her new clothes.

After a while she came out and was now wearing some of her new clothes, she had a paper bag with her where she had stored the rest of her clothing. And she was carrying Joel's black coat with her left arm.

She looked like a human now. Joel just looked at her with a slight awe. The she gave him his coat back and he put it on.

"So, Joel. Should we go back to your place to put my clothes there so I don't have to bring them to the grocery store with me?" Chloe asked him.

"Yes, sure..." Joel did not favor the idea of Chloe actually bringing her clothes there. She would need to stay there longer and propably spend the night there. Joel just sighed.

But as he looked at Chloe, she seemed to be happy. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to bring her with him to his apartment after all. He was just anxious.

Then he remembered that Kamski was going to go with him to Finland for a month. Kamski would bring Chloe with him as the Finnish media would be over the heels to meet the infamous Elijah Kamski and his android. Joel grinned at at thought of people wanting to meet Kamski, and propably Joel would also kind of loose his anonymity as he was now a Co-CEO of CyberLife.

And people would always comment on his facial scars and wanting to know the story behind those. It was hard enough to answer American media about them.

He could wear makeup to cover up them but people would still know that he had them and ask why he covers them up. He hates interviews, their questions are usually very lame and they hav the same topic over and over again.

He would need to discuss about this with Kamski as soon as he wakes up from his painful slumber. They would need to go either on Kamski's apartment or his since they could not afford anyone listen to their conversation. Media should not know about this.

Not yet at least.

The CyberLife tower would be a great place but since it burned down and was still on progress to be rebuilt, it wasn't an option suitable for this activity.

Joel was dragged out from his thoughts as Chloe tapped his shoulder to ask if he already had a list of groceries to buy.

"No, I need to look im my cabinets and fridge in order to make a full list of what I need to buy." Joel explained.

"Okay, where is your apartment excatly?"

"Just a 400 metes and we are there."

"Do you have any pets?"

"A bumblebee." Joel grinned at Chloe.

Chlow looked amazed and her eyes started to sparkle.

"Really? I have never seen a real bumblebee, only the synthetic ones."

Joel felt a bit sad that the bumblebees were at the verdge of extinction. He would take a good care of his bumblebee and make sure that she produces a lot of children in order to ensure the specie will survive. Although he did not have any clue how to take care of a bumblebee, he would learn.

"This one is very much real, she is very fluffy and colorful."

"Wow, what species she is?"

"If I remember correctly, she might be a Bombus Terrestris."

Chloe cybernetically looked for pictures of that kind of a specie.

"Oh, wow. She sure is a beautiful one! Where did you even get it?"

"Carl sent it for me, from Germany. I honestly don't know why."

Chloe looked very surprised but still continued to smile.

Then they were at the entrance of Joel's apartment complex.

"We are here. It is the 8th floor."


	12. Rise and Shine, Kamski!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe likes flowers.
> 
> Joel is unsure about if bringing Chloe with him was a good idea after all...
> 
> Kamski has a little battle inside his head.
> 
> Joel gets surprised.
> 
> Kamski gets very drunk and blackouts.

**30th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's apartment**

**4:55PM**

As Joel was climbing the stairs he started to feel a bit dizzy caused by the fact that he hadn't had time to eat anything today. He just sighed and continued to climb. 

He noticed Chloe looking at him a bit worried glance. 

"Are you okay, Joel?" She asked him.

"Maybe. I haven't eaten anything today yet but I will do so as soon as I am able to." Joel explained with a tired eye roll.

Chloe sadly smiled and nodded as a sign of understandment.

They then reached the 8th floor and Joel took his keys from his coat pocket and began to open the door.

Joel then opened his apartment door and let Chloe go first and then stepped himself inside. He then stopped on his tracks as Chloe suddenly gasped. All he could hear was his bumblebee buzzing and flying all over his kitchen and the petunias there.

"Omg, it is so cute!" Chloe exclaimed with joy.

Joel just looked at the bumblebee and her flying. He wondered how the hell did she got out of her container. He remembered that he had closed its lid. 

"Yes, but how did she get out there flying, I closed her in her container." Joel wondered.

"Maybe she is a superbee." Chloe playfully joked.

Joel just watched with unreadable expression as Chloe was now playing with the bumblebee.

He rolled his eyes, he was not in a mood for this, he wanted something to eat.

He grabbed two slices of a whole grain bread and began to eat them.

He then decided to check on the container to find out what was wrong with it. But before he was going to do that he kicked his shoes off.

He then went on his bedroom where he left the container on his wooden dresser. He inspected the container. Oh my god...the bumbebee had chewed the lid a hole. What a beast.

That explains how she got out in the first place. He then chose to take the lid off since it was now pretty much useless. He just hoped that the beast would find her way back to the container and not to choose another place to call a home. He would not have an energy to constantly hunt her from various places because he was afraid that he would accidently crush her.

He then went back in his kitchen. And all he saw was Chloe closely inspecting his petunia flowers and the bumblebee was sitting on Chloe's nose. He mentally facepalmed at the sight but didn't say a word.

He took a glass from one of his kitchen cabinets and filled it with water. He was a bit dehydrated and the water felt amazing in his mouth and he liked the cold feeling he got on his throat when the cold water went through his oesophagus. He sighed and refilled his glass.

After he was finished drinking he thought about getting the shopping done.

He then took a notebook and a pen, and started to check his kitchen cabinets to know what he would need to purchase from the grocery shop. 

He made a list of items.

He then checked his fridge and listed up various types of ingredients he would need to get.

"Okay, I've got the list ready." Joel informed Chloe.

But Chloe was too busy tampering with his petunias to pay any attention on what Joel just said. Her eyes sparkled with joy. She looked like a child but in an adult body.

Joel then went by Chloe and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. 

Chloe turned her head towards Joel and blushed a bit. She was embarassed about the fact how she just paid all her attention on Joel's petunias and didn't even realize why she was here at the first place.

"Oh, sorry Joel. I wasn't paying attention." Chloe apologized.

Joel just shook his head and informed Chloe yet again that he got his list ready.

"Okay, did you remember to add an ashtray to the list?" Chloe very sarcastically asked him.

Joel just smirked and added a glass jar on his list.

Chloe then got an idea on her head and just looked at Joel with fascinated expression.

"What?" Asked Joel, feeling embarassed by the fact that Chloe was looking straight to his eyes and just smiling,

"Would you like it better that at the while you go to purchase those items, I would stay here and maybe tidy your apartment up a little bit?" Chloe asked with great enthusiasm.

Joel just stared at Chloe and looked around his apartment. Yep, it needed to be cleaned.

"Sure if you want to, I was going to do it later today but thanks." Joel formed a tiny smile as he thought about the fact that he didn't have to do it all on his own.

"With pleasure." Chloe smiled back.

"Okay, I will be back in an hour or so."

"See you later!"

Joel took the notebook with him, put his shoes back on and exited his apartment.

* * *

**30th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**5:49PM**

As Joel now was exiting his apartment complex he felt at ease since he could be alone for a moment until he would need to share his apartment with Chloe yet again. 

He felt a bit anxious that Chloe was there on her own and cleaning his apartment. He didn't have anything to hide though but he still was feeling uneasy with a someone like Chloe looking through his stuff and cabinets.

He then started to feel a bit lightheaded again as he have eaten only two slices of bread today. Did he eat anything yesterday? No, he was too tired and just drank a glass of juice before going to bed. He definitely needs to eat something.

As he was walking down the street he saw a very tall woman who looked horrified at him. She propably saw his facial scars. She looked so disgusted. Joel just ignored her.

He was pretty much used to it. He still didn't enjoy being out in public since there will always be people staring at him. There will always be discrimination towards him, he had ruined his own face and it was entirely his own fault.

He didn't want to blame himself as it would not do any good.

He then lit a cigarette and held it on his lips. He took a drag of it and kept the smoke inside of his lungs for a while until releasing it through his nostrills. He really needed to have a talk with Kamski as soon as he would wake up.

They need to plan their trip a bit more. They needs to inform the Finnish government as it would cause some inconvience if they decided to just go there as the Finnish media, paparazzis, fans and curious people would cause some trouble if the police didn't know what was going to happen. He and Kamski could potentially get into trouble and maybe pay some fares if they were to choose not to inform all people needed in advance.

They would need to ask the Finnish government and police to make sure media and curious people were not to interrupt their private life in his home in Ylöjärvi. They maybe need to hire a couple of bodyguards just in case something were to happen.

He was lucky that Kamski had money for this.

He felt better as he saw the grocery store logo and he knew that he soon wouldn't have to stand people staring at him any longer. He knew that if he had his lab coat on no-one would question why his face looks like it does but as he was now wearing his long black coat, they wouldn't see the scientist he is but a potentially dangerous man.

He then took last drag of his cigarette and dumped it in a trashbin.

As he stepped into the store he decided to just focus on finding all he needed and leave. He felt anxious as he felt some people kept staring at him, but he pushed all those thoughts away.

He then saw someone smiling at him, it was Oliver.

"Hi, what's up man?" Oliver greeted him with a smile.

"Hello. Doing the same as you, buying food." Joel sarcastically replied.

Oliver just smiled but as soon as he sensed that Joel was anxious Oliver scanned this area with his eys and saw some elderly women staring at Joel's scars on his face.

"What is wrong with people..." Oliver was not happy with the situation.

He then went by the elderly woman and asked why she was doing that. Her eyes went wide and she continued her shopping and not once looked at Joel again.

Joel smirked at Oliver. 

"Thanks man." 

Oliver just smiled. "You're welcome. Feel free to do just like that if you get in a similar situation." He reassured Joel.

Joel just nodded and said his goodbyes to Oliver and continued to fulfill his list of items into his shopping cart. 

After he paid for his stuff and left the store he noticed how it started snowing again. He watched as huge snowflakes slowly made their way to the ground. There was no wind and the sky was completely white.

He readjusted his paper bag to ensure there was no chance it could break and all his stuff drop to the ground. 

He then saw a couple of paparazzis looking for someone, he didn't take any risks and just continued his walk home. He then saw a newspaper on the ground with huge headline saying: "CyberLife's new synthetic kidney has been a huge succes" and there was a photo of the kidney. He then noticed that someone had written an article of the CyberLife Tower's demolishion and the police suspected arson. He decided to take the newspaper with him and read it later.

As soon as he opened the door of his apartment complex he remembered that Chloe was still propably cleaning his apartment on her own. He grinned at the thought of Chloe doing his laundry. He then just shaked his head and started to climb the stairs.

* * *

**30th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**The Quest room**

**7:44PM**

Kamski was lying on his massive king sized bed. He begun to feel a drilling pain coming through his skull. He snapped his eyes open. He took a look at his surroundings, there was no-one arohnd but him, then he noticed a note left from Chloe.

"Dear Elijah,

I, Chloe will spend some time with Joel since you have fainted. I might be back around 10pm or tomorrow. As soon as you wake up and read this, drink some water and take a couple of painkillers I have left you there to minimalize the pain your head for sure is giving you right now. See you soon!

And by the way, Joel is worried about you."

-Chloe

Kamski took the painkillers and washed them away with water. He began to drink all the water Chloe had left for him.

He sighed and then all the withdrawal symptoms kicked in with a full power, he felt very stressed out. He went by his backpack and took a bag of cigarettes out and took three cigarettes

He went by the window and opened it and as soon as the window was open he put one of the cigarettes on his lips and lit it.

He took a desperate drag of it and held the smoke in for a while until slowly releasing it with a sigh. He then continued to literally suck the cigarette until it had nothing left and lit another and another. 

After three cigarettes smoked in a row he started to finally calm down. He sighed in relief and closed the window.

He then used the bathroom and took a look at himself in the bathroom mirror.

His eyebags had faded a bit. Now they were a very dark violet instead of being almost black. He put his index finger on his eyebag and noticed that it wasn't as swollen as before he fainted. His hair was very withered and messy. He took his still oily hairbrush from the bathroom counter and decided to wash it with soap.

As the brush was now clean he dried it amd begun to brush his hair. Although he liked to rock a messy and greasy hairstyle he still liked the look and the feel of smooth and silky hair almost as much as the greasy one.

He felt a bit sweaty since he had fainted wearing his black turtleneck and it wasn't a shirt from the lightest part, literally and practically. He smiled a bit at the thought.

He took of the turtleneck and as soon as he saw the bloody bandage on his arm he started to get anxious.

He arms started to itch, and he felt a terrible urge to cut. He had no 'real' reason this time, he just felt like cutting.

He decided to only make a small cut. But as he started to get the knife he remembered that Joel had taken his knife away from him. 

Joel knew that he would cut as soon as he leaves. He was a damn good thinker.

 _"Joel is a genius just like me"_ Kamski thought. 

Kamski just sighed and began to search for a razorblade. There must be at least one.

He searched all the bathroom cabinets and as he noticed that there wasn't any he just sat on the floor and took the bandage off.

The cuts underneath it was still healing and could be opened easily if he chose to. He insoected the cuts with his hand and they were all very 'risen up' if one could say it that way. They were **very** visible and could easily be seen even from distance.

He sighed and took a cleam bandage roll from one of the cabinets and began to bandage the newest still healing cuts.

As he was bandaging the arm he felt a bit weak caused by not eating for tens of hours. He put a hand on his stomach and gently squeezed it. He sighed and felt a bit sad that he had gotten himself to this stage. 

He then got up and put a dark blue turtleneck on. Next he needed some food, he thought about ordering some takeaway but maybe Carl had something downstairs.

He then decided to go downstairs and see what Carl was up to. He hoped that Carl had some food. If not he would order some.

* * *

**30th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Manfred Mansion**

**Kitchen**

**8:18PM**

As he walked the to downstairs he heard Carl chat with someone. He suspected that the other person was a Carl's caretaker/assistant. But he didn't remember how they looked like or much about them since he had never paid much attention to them last times he was there.

He didn't even know if the assistant was the same as before or if Carl had switched assistants.

He went to the kitchen amd saw Carl and his assistant drinking tea together at the dining table there. 

Carl noticed him and turned his head at him and smiled.

"Good evening Elijah. Did you sleep well?" Carl asked with a wink.

The assistant just looked at Kamski with huge sparkly eyes.

Kamski formed am awkward smile.

"I slept quite well actually if the headache doesn't count..." he answered and continued to look at the assistant straight into their eyes.

Carl nodded and offered Kamski a cup of tea. 

Kamski took the cup and took a seat with them.

"Elijah, this is my assistant, do you remember him?" Carl asked with a curious tone.

Kamski continued to smile awkwardily.

"No, I am afraid I do not. Who are you?" He asked the assistant and took a sip from his tea.

The assistant's eyes sparkled even more if it was even possible.

"I am Jonathan Roves, I am blessed to see you in real life!" He put his hands on his cheeks and formed a tiny smile and blushed a bit.

Kamski looked at him a bit horrified. 

"Okay...that's nice. I guess..." he replied a bit uncomfortably.

"I like androids!" Jonathan told Kamski with a bit fanboyish tone.

Now Kamski was totally horrified about Jonathan.

"That's nice. Have you seen any in close?" Kamski asked him despite getting really uncomfortable.

"Yes I have! I know lots of people who have androids helping them with their daily chores!" Jonathan was really excited.

Kamski nodded. He was about to ask Carl if he had any food but Jonathan suddenly continued;

"I also like how they treat them as their own, I have rarely seen any people doing anything bad to them." Jonathan admitted proudly.

Kamski just smiled at him and proceeded to ask Carl about the food.

"Carl, do you happen to have any food?"

Carl chuckled and nodded.

"I have saved you a box of Chinese food as Jonathan made some at the noon. It is in the fridge." Carl told Kamski.

"Thanks." He thanked Carl and went looking for the food Carl mentioned.

He found it and put it in to a microwave.

As soon as the food was hot he took the food out of it and placed it to the table right in front of his chair. He took a pair of chopsticks and sat down and began to eat it.

It was very good.

"Jonathan, you need to teach Chloe how to make this." Kamski looked at Jonathan and smiled.

Jonathan blushed deep red and nodded. He then put his head on his hands and just watched Kamski with a fascinated expression.

Kamski didn't know why Jonathan seemed to like him that much. It was very weird.

Jonathan watched as Kamski was eating all of the food the box contained. Jonathan just looked at him with awe. Kamski raised an eyebrow at him and Jonathan looked away quickly.

Carl laughed at this and Kamski's smile widened a bit.

Kamski just continued to enjoy the food as it would soon end as he have eaten almost all of it by now. He liked the feeling when his stomach was just so full, it felt even better now that he had been actually very hungry. 

He knew that he was yet again overeating but he didn't care. He will make changes to his diet as soon as he is mentally more stable. Now even the slightest bit of happiness is very much welcomed.

"Elijah, have you infromed Joel that you have waken up?" Carl suddenly asked Kamski.

"Oh...I have completely forgotten, he must be very worried about me." He sighed and finished his eating.

"What about surprising Joel by a visit?" Carl asked Kamski.

"You know his address?" Kamski asked with his eyes wide.

Carl laughed and told Kamski that he had sent Joel a package couple of days earlier. 

"How and why did you get his home address?" Kamski asked Carl suspiciously.

"I have a few friends who are from Finland and they know Joel. They were kind enough to give his address so I could surprise him with a quite special gift." Carl explained Kamski.

Kamski held his index finger up; "So that's why you were talking about a Finnish sisu when you mentioned that I might have it...this all make more sense now." Kamski looked like pieces of puzzle were finally getting together in his head. He was out of breath for talking such a long sentences. He gathered his breath and continued;

"But why have you not mentioned me anything about knowing some people who know Joel?" Kamski asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Or even that you have knewn Joel before I actually met him?" Kamski was very suspicious.

Carl smiled.

"I was going to but you were faster." He sarcastically replied.

Kamski rolled his eyes at Carl.

"Okay...so can I get his home address?" Kamski asked Carl _nicely_.

Jonathan and Carl laughed a bit and Carl nodded. 

He sent it to Kamski via text message to ensure Jonathan didn't know the address.

"Okay, thanks Carl." Kamski said and stood up to get his coat and took his leave.

He had an apartment to find.

And he would need to buy some razorblades. _Just in case._

* * *

**30th January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's apartment**

**9:55PM**

Chloe and Joel had been doing great work with the cleaning, the apartment was tidied up, laundry was drying in the bathroom, dishes have been washed and put into the drying cabinet, Chloe had vacuumed the apartment and Joel had cleaned the bathroom from floor to the ceiling.

Chloe had made Joel an avocado pasta dish and Joel had prepared Chloe a Thirium drink.

Joel was glad that he had such a large window ledges on his apartment so he could fit the glass jar on it. He was having his smoke break and just watched as Chloe was becoming best friends with his bumblebee.

He took a drag of his cigarette and took at look at his apartment, he didn't remember it ever been this tidy and clean before. He for sure would love to make a habit of cleaning his apartment at least once a week if the results were this great.

He was about to stump his cigarette on the glass jar as the doorbell rang. He was a bit perplexed about the fact that someone was willing to visit him such an unreasonable time. He put the cigarette in the jar and closed the window and went to answer the door.

As soon as he opened it his eyes widened.

"Hey Joel." Kamski greeted him with a smile.

Joel let Kamski in and locked the door. He took a look at Kamski and he noticed that his face looked a bit brighter than before, his eyebags were a bit lighter of color and his eyes weren't as dull as they usually were.

"How did you get my address?" Joel jokingly asked.

Kamski smiled that stubid smile of his and told him that Carl gave it to him as he apparently had sent Joel a package before. He also told Joel that he wanted to surprise him by a visit so that's the reason he is here.

Joel smiled at Kamski and pulled him a hug.

"How did you sleep?" He asked Kamski.

"Very well actually. But I hated the headache it gave me." Kamski sincerely answered and looked straight at Joel's eyes.

Joel nodded and whispered on Kamski's ear;

"I assume you used the elevator." Joel teased Kamski.

"Hey, I am not going to kill myself by climbing those ridiculous amount of stairs!" Kamski defended himself with a smirk.

Joel just laughed.

"Chloe is also here." Joel told Kamski.

Kamski kicked his shoes of and went to find Chloe. As soon as he found Chloe his eyes widened. 

"Hey Chloe." Kamski greeted her but as soon as he saw the bumlebee his eyes widened.

"Umm...Joel?"

"Yes?"

"Since when did you had a pet bumblebee flying around freely?" He asked with awe.

Joel rolled his eyes.

"I have told you before that I have got a pet bumblebee, why are you so surprised?" Joel a bit annoyedly asked.

"Yeah but I assumed it was a synthetic one, not real!" Kamski looked fascinated by the real bumblebee.

Joel facepalmed.

"Why on earth would Carl give me a synthetic bumblebee as a gift?"

Kamski laughed at that.

Kamski paused a looked at Joel.

"What?" Joel asked with an amused smirk.

"Why would anyone give you a bumblebee anyway?"

"Fair point. Carl has an interest taste of gifts." Joel admitted.

Kamski was silent for a while until he flashed a toothy grin at Joel.

Joel blushed a bit by that sight but hid it quickly.

"Carl for real gifted you with a bumblebee, huh?" Kamski asked him.

"Yes. Why?"

"The queation still remains: why?"

Joel shrugged. 

"And by the way, Carl told me that he knew you and a couple of Finnish people..."

"Yes, and?"

"But why he haven't told me anything?"

"When was the last time you visited Carl before this?"

"6 months ago, why?"

"Well...six months is a long time. He visited Finland and I met him there by a chance as he brought a few pieces of art with him."

"Oh..." Kamski lookes a bit embarassed.

Joel sighed.

"By the way...about our trip to Finland, have you planned anything yet? I bet the media would be interested."

"Not much yet, maybe we should plan it tomorrow together?" Kamski asked with a wink.

Joel felt that, he really felt it, oh how he loved Kamski with all his heart.

He embraced Kamski and kissed him softly. He was insanely fallen for this man.

Kamski responded to the kiss and started to rub Joel's sides and aqueeze the fat there. 

Joel seemed to enjoy it and he had to broke the kiss to get some air and panted a bit.

"You know, I have my insecurities about my weight but right now it feels amazing." Joel honestly admitted and kissed Kamski again, this time on his neck.

Kamski then put his hands on Joel's chest and just started to inspect it.

"Uh...maybe we should do this on a more reasonable place, eg. in a bedroom or in a bathroom since Chloe is there." Joel suggested while burying his head on Kamski's shoulder.

"Sure, which one do you suggest more?" Kamski asked.

"Let's go in the bedroom and lock the door, shall we?" Joel suggested.

"Let's." Replied Kamski.

They went to Joel's bedroom and Kamski locked the door.

Joel took his violet turtleneck off and placed it on a nightstand. Kamski looked at Joel and blushed while he himself took his dark blue turtleneck off.

As soon as Kamski took his shirt off Joel saw a clean bandage on Kamski's arm and approached him.

Kamski noticed what Joel saw and took the bandage off so Joel could see his still healing unharmed scars.

He went to inspect Kamski's still healing cuts beneath a fresh bandage, he had not done any new. He was glad that he took Kamski's knife away.

"I am glad that you haven't made any new cuts." Joel told Kamski.

"I was going to add one but since you took my knife away I couldn't." Kamski sadly admitted.

"How do you feel now?" Joel asked him.

Kamski started to feel anxious and he felt like he needed to cut. His arms started to itch very much. His stress levels were rising.

"I...I feel very stressed, I want to cut. Please Joel. Let me do just one cut." Kamski begged him. He looked very stressed.

Joel didn't know if he should let Kamski cut himself or not. There was a high propability that Kamski would cut himself while he slept since Kamski was not tired at all. He had woken up very recently after all.

If he didn't let Kamski cut now, he would do it later and maybe lose control of it and make more harm than if he let Kamski do just one cut while he observes that Kamski didn't go any further.

But if there was a way to prevent Kamski from cutting by succeeding to Calm he down, it would be better to do that.

Joel decided to try and calm Kamski down.

"Joel, please." He begged with a bit desperately as he unknowngly had started to scratch his cuts.

"I know that you feel like you want to cut, but if there is any other way you could drop your stress levels than cutting...just let me know." Joel embraced Kamski and cupped his face.

Kamski was now thinking, and Oliver's words came to his mind.

_"The way you are now living your life is not the way it will be forever._

_You may be thinking that there is no way to cure your mindset. You can propably see that your own measures are no longer really working...there is ways to really heal your wounded mind._

_I can show you one way."_

_And Oliver hugged him very tightly and he felt like he truly cared for him._

Now he had Joel hugging him, his love of the life and very gentle boyfriend. He started to feel like everytime Joel was there for him, he wouls feel better and all his needs to cut would vanish away.

"I...I think this is working." He told Joel.

Joel just hummed a bit and continued to hug Kamski.

Kamski then released a long sigh of relief. He felt better.

"Thanks Joel." He whispered to Joel's ear.

He then gently cupped Joel's face and kissed him. Joel responded to the kiss and deepened it. He put his hands around Kamski's waist and was squeezing the fat there.

Kamski broke the kiss and started to pant heavily, he looked like he enjoyed it a bit too much.

Joel then put his hands on Kamski's chest and gently squeezed his moobs.

"Joel, I may be very out of shape but...you're not much better yourself." Kamski panted.

Joel just laughed a bit.

"I know but for real, you should at least try to improve your stamina a bit. The stage it is right now is a bit ridiculous."

Kamski continued to pant.

"Yeah...uh...I know. I jus'...gimme a minute okah?" He begged and continued to gather his breath.

Kamski laid down on Joel's bed and just breathed.

Joel just smirked at him. Kamski smiled and was still out of breath.

Whatever they were going to do was pretty much impssible now since Kamski didn't have any strenght to do anything. He just laid on his back at the bed with his arms behind his neck. 

"Want a glass of wine?" Joel asked him.

"Sure! What kind of...uhh...wine do you have?" He asked while still panting.

"A lots of wines. If you are up to it, I can show you." Joel smirked at him.

Kamski just sat up on the bed and was _still_ out of breath. He put one of hands on his belly and just rested it there.

"I...really need to loose weight but at the same time I absolutely love when you squeeze my fat." Kamski admitted and gently put his hands on the belly rolls on both of his sides.

Joel just shook his head and smiled.

Kamski formed a stubid smile on his face and stood up. 

"Okay, I am now ready to see your wine collection."

Joel nodded and they went to his kitchen.

Joel opened his wine cabinet to show Kamski his wine collection. There were about a hundred bottles of wine. White, red, berry, and some French wine. There were also a large variety of whiskey and vodka.

"Are you an alcoholist?" Kamski asked with a straight face.

Kamski swapped the deadpan expression to a devilish grin.

Joel formed a very tiny teeny smile, almost nonexistent. Kamski noticed it and cupped Joel's face and kissed him gently.

Joel responded to the kiss and just looked at him with that same tiny smile and blushed a little bit.

Kamski giggled at that. Chloe looked amused.

But as soon as Chloe saw Kamski's arms his smile froze and she looked sad.

There was so many cuts ans scars. And there were fairly new cuts as well. About 30 very deep and they were healing yes, but he should have gotten them stitched up.

Kamski noticed that Chloe looked at his arms.

"Chloe...don't worry, I will be fine..someday." Kamski admitted to her.

She just looked at the cuts straight-faced but nodded.

Joel then as he saw Kamski and Chloe's conversation was over decided to answer to Kamski's playful question.

"No, I believe I am not an alcoholist but I however enjoy to drink from time to time. I have no exigency to drink." Joel admitted him.

"I however have a terrible urge to get drunk right now. What do you recommend?" Kamski admitted to Joel.

Joel took a look at his cabinet yet again. He pondered for a moment before handing Kamski a bottle of 12 star Метаха.

Kamski's eyes widened and started to sparkle.

"This kind of a brandy is amazing, how did you know I wanted to drink this tonight?" Kamski asked Joel with a grin.

"I just guessed. Don't drink it all, it's 40% after all."

"I...I try not to."

"Good, how about we start with a classic red wine and then move to the brandy?" Joel suggested.

"An excellent idea!"

Joel shook his head and smiled.

He then took a fine red wine out of the cabinet and closed its door. He put the wine on the table and just took the cork out with a pop. Kamski and Chloe were just staring at him.

"What?" He asked.

"How did you...open that bottle without a bottle opener?" Kamski asked curiously.

"Hey, I am taking care of myself enough to sometimes lift weight." He answered with an uninterested expression.

"Wow...how mich do you lift?" Kamski asked him.

Joel rolled his eyes and took a pair of wine glasses out of the drying cabinet.

"Not much, _yet_. 85 kilos at the moment but I am trying to lift more."

"Why?" Asked Kamski.

" _Why?_ " Joel asked back. "I want to build some muscle, lifting also burns calories you know." Joel winked at Kamski.

Kamski blushed and looked at Joel with a watery smile.

Joel raised an eyebrow to Kamski's expression.

Kamski had never really noticed how well developed Joel's arms were. He had been impressed by his strenght though but never noticed the cause by that for some reason. He felt a bit stubid.

"I like your arms." Kamski told Joel with a wink.

Joel just folded his arms and looked at Kamski with an amused smirk before filling up their wine glasses.

Kamski took a sip and he immediately liked the taste and started to a bit greedily drink it.

Joel just laughed at Kamski and took a sip from his own glass.

Chloe was just looking at both of them and smiled while drinking her Thirium based drink.

Chloe took the bumblebee from one of the petunias and put her on her container and the bumblebee started to sleep peacefully. 

Chloe smiled at that.

She then went back to the kitchen.

"I am going to go and charge now, have a good night!" Chloe informed and went lying down on a Joel's couch and started her stasis cycle where she would be in a semi-comatose state and unknown from living world and its noises.

The bois wished Chloe sweet dreams ans she smiled as she slowly went unconscious.

Joel looked at Kamski with a smirk as Kamski had drowned his fourth glass of wine already and was pouring his fifth.

"Are you an alcoholist?" Joel sarcastically asked Kamski.

Kamski blushed.

Joel rolled his eyes at Kamski and smiled.

"I hope not, although I slightly suspect it." Kamski admitted with an embarassed smile.

Kamski looked so cute when he was a bit embarassed. Joel just smirked at him with his ever growning trademark smirk.

Kamski flashed yet again another toothy grin at him and drowned his fift glass in one gulp.

Joel just stared at him his eyes wide open and he looked impressed.

Kamski then stood up and went to pug hands on Jole's shoulders. He began to hug his neck from behind.

Joel drank his glass empty and stood up as well and was about to decork the wine bottle but Kamski took it and drank it all before Joel could put it in the fridge. Joel just watched as Kamski drank the whole bottle pretty much himself and took the bottle of Kamski as he had drank it.

He then put the empty wine bottle and their glasses to the sink.

Kamski approached him and pulled Joel in a hug. 

Joel rubbed Kamski's back.

Then Kamski kissed Joel again, more passionately than the last time.

Joel responded to the kiss and Kamski deepened it. 

Kamski took the brandy bottle from the table and put it into his pants pocket.

Joel broke the kiss and looked at Kamski for a moment. "Maybe you should hold the drinking a bit, at keast for now."

"Oh, okay." Kamski replied with a blush.

Joel shook his head and smiled at Kamski's certain type of an alcoholistic lifestyle.

"What are you thinking bout?" Joel asked him.

"You. What else?" He sarcastically replied with a huge smile.

"I suspect you aren't tired at all but I cannot say the same about me." Joel admitted with a sleepy tone.

"It's okay. I could hug you all night while you sleep." Kamski winked at Joel.

"I don't remember inviting you to stay for the night, did I?" Joel teasingly stroked Kamski's hair.

"I invited myself, so go and brush your teeth you muscleman." Kamski murmured in Joel's neck as he placed a kiss there.

Joel shivered slightly and Kamski continued to kiss his neck. Then Kamski bit him.

"Hey, please not now. Maybe at the morning I wake up." Joel teasingly told Kamski who just smiled at the comment.

Joel went to his bathroom and Kamski followed him there. He rinsed his toothbrush and poured some xylitol toothpaste on it and proceeded to brush his teeth.

Kamski looked around the bathroom and he admired it's how clean it was at the moment. He didn't remember how a clean bathroom looked like and he was now a bit embarassed about his own bathroom where he doesn't even dare to step a foot on since it was in a terrible condition. There would for sure be mold growing there. And all the bacteria living there would make him sick so he had avoided cleaning it for years.

And the fact that Joel's apartment was so tidy everywhere reminded him about the fact that his own home is a complete opposite, his home is just a junkyard with all those old moldy takeaway boxes everywhere and dirty, vile kitchen and bedroom.

He didn't even own a vacuum.

He was embarassed about the fact that Joel would eventually come and visit his home. He didn't know how he would react to him living like that. He really wants to clean his home but at the same time he enjoys that it doesn't really matter if he dump trash there since it is not noticeable as there are trash everywhere anyways.

"What's in your mind?" asked Joel as he spitted the toothpaste out and rinsed his toothbrush clean from toothpaste and put it back to its own light green ceramic mug.

"Oh, I was just admiring how clean your bathroom is, it's amazing." Kamski honestly admitted as he looked at Joel straight into his eyes.

Joel was a bit dumbfounded by that.

"How so? Don't you clean your bathroom regularly?" Joel asked with a bit worried tone.

Kamski sighed.

"No, I do not. I haven't dared to even step a foot in it for years...the place scares me." Kamski folded his arms and he looked a bit uncomfortable.

He then took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and pulled one out.

"I really need to smoke right now." 

Joel nodded and followed Kamski to his kitchen and opened a window for him.

Kamski lit the cigarette and took a long drag of it.

He looked very uncomfortable.

Joel felt sorry for him.

"Hey, if you want to, I and Chloe could help you with it." Joel offered him.

Kamski's expression brightened a bit.

"Really?" Kamski asked while taking another drag.

"Of course!"

Kamski thought a bit. "But you must wear protective gloves and mask since I honestly don't know what could be living there." Kamski smirked at Joel and took a drag.

Joel rolled his eyes.

"Sure, I will make sure I and Chloe wear enough protection to not get contaminated by any vile bacteria etc." Joel assured Kamski.

Kamski smiled and took the kast drag of his cigarette and dumped it on the glass jar Joel offered him.

He then put his hands on Joel's hair and he liked how silky and smooth it was.

"Hey by the way, I have some extra toothbrushes...so if you want to brush your teeth you are free to do so." Joel looked Kamski with a smile.

"Thanks, I will do so."

Joel closed the window and went back to his bathroom. Kamski followed him there.

Joel then offered Kamski a purple toothbrush and poured some xylitol toothpaste on it.

As soon as Kamski started to brush his teeth his expression changed. He must have tasted xylitol for the first time ever.

"How does it taste like?" Joel curiously asked him.

Kamski took the toothbrush out of his mouth.

"It tastes fresh...like a some kind of a tree leave if it makes any sense." He answered and continued to brush his teeth.

"It makes sense since it is a birch tree sugar which protects teeth from getting cavities that easily." Joel explained Kamski.

Kamski looked impressed and was about to ask something but Joel interrupted him by saying that yes, he brought a ridiculous amount of xylitol toothpaste with him from finland last time he went there a 4 months ago.

Kamski giggled and continued to brush his teeth.

A couple of minutes later he spit the toothpaste out and rinsed the toothbrush.

Joel was washing his face and Kamski looked at the scars on his face. He admired how he proudly showed the scars without any hesitation.

Kamski just didn't know how much it actually affects Joel every time he is out in the public.

"You look very nice." Kamski told Joel.

Joel stopped washing his face and looked at Kamski for while before continuing washing his face. He smirked a bit and Kamski noticed it as he started to giggle.

"You know I could drink myself to blackout so I could sleep too." Kanski told Joel while leaning against the bathroom wall. He had the brandy bottle with him and took a long drink from it. He literally drank it like it was just water.

Joel shook his head.

"If you continue to drink like this on a daily basis that gut of yours is going to round up even more." Joel pointed out as he was now drying his face with a light peach colored towel.

Kamski just smirked.

"Maybe I want to grow my stomach a bit." He admitted and drank a but more of the brandy.

"I really hope you are kidding now, you really will have some serious concequences to your health if you gain more weight." Joel lectured Kamski witha serious tone.

Kamski sighed and looked at Joel before looking back at the brandy bottle on his hand.

"I know. Believe or not...I am not tryna get a Chirrosis or anythin'..." Kamski slurred a bit and took another drink.

"You really are drunk." Joel sighed.

Joel came closer to Kamski and put his plan into action. He kissed Kamski very deeply and Kamski responded to the kiss and closed his eyes. While his eyes were closed Joel took the bottle and put it on a bathroom cabinet while still kissing Kamski.

Seems like Kamski didn't notice it and Joel put his hands around Kamski's non-existent waist. He squeezed Kamski's bellyrolls on his sides and Kamski started to shiver a bit. Joel was a bit impressed by that reaction but then he remembered that Kamski specifically said that he loved this, so he continued doing it. 

Kamski broke the kiss in order to get some air. He panted heavily and was very flustered. His expression was very strange. He looked like he enjoyed what Joel was doing but at the same time he looked a but stressed. Joel stopped the squeezing and replaced it with rubbing.

"More! Please, Joel..." Kamski begged him.

Joel smiled and started to yet again squeeze Kamski's sides.

Kamski hissed and gasped with lust. He even moaned a bit.

Joel was very curious about that reaction. He hummed and continued to study Kamski's reactions.

Kamski kissed Joel's neck again.

Joel didn't hate it but he didn't know if he liked it either. Neck kissing was a bit new to him if he was honest.

Kamski was looking a bit exhausted and he slowly but surely started to slide down the wall bit by bit.

Joel noticed that and pulled Kamski back up.

"What is on your mind?" Joel asked him.

Kamski panted for a while until he answered.

"You...you really took my advice didb't you?" He panted before continuing; "but I need to smoke." He continued to pant and looked even more uncomfortable.

"I would carry you to the kitchen but I am afraid that I am not strong enough to do that...yet." Joel teasingly admitted.

"Hee hee, *insert Michael Jackson joke here*,...very funny." Kamski formed a bit annoyed smile but giggled, and exited the bathroom.

He went to the kitchen and sat on a chair and opened the kitchen window and took two of Joel's cigarettes from a package Joel had left on the window ledge, and placed one on his lips and lit it.

Joel just leaned against kitchen wall and looked at Kamski stealing his cigarettes. He rolled his eyes at that.

Kamski took a long drag of the cigarette. He was sitting very lazily on the chair. Almost slipping out of it. He looked like he was about to black out at any given minute.

No wonder, 5 glasses of wine, and what was left from the bottle of wine of 18% and over a half liter of 40% brandy. Joel was impressed and horrified that Kamski needed this much to actually black out. Joel had once tested and he could only finish one 40% brandy or vodka a bit more than halfway through until he would blackout almost immediately.

Kamski finished smoking and as he tried to stand up he almost fell down. He was indeed very drunk. Joel rushed to Kamski's side and supported him and started to guide him into his bedroom. Kamski looked like he was already blacked out as his eyes were completely shut and his body felt like it has no muscles to keep it up. Not that Kamski had much muscle power anyway but right now Joel felt like Kamski was a pure spaghetti on his arms.

He managed to put Kamski in his bed.

He hesitated if he should take Kamski's trousers off as well and after a moment he just took them off. He then noticed Kamski's 30 still healing very deep cuts as Kamski's arm was angled in a way it showed the cuts completely. He was glad that he took Kamski's knife away.

He then tucked Kamski in and he started to stirr again. He opened his eyes again and looked at Joel.

"I love you, ya' know?" He slurred.

"I know. Sleep tight, Kamski." Joel told him.

Joel patted Kamski gently on his head and then went to close the window Kamski left open.

Before he closed the window he took one cigarette, placed it on his lips and lit it.

He took a drag of it and held the smoke inside his lungs and sighed. He really need to talk about their trip with Kamski as soon as he would sober up the next day.

They would need to start planning all possible public speaking/announcements scenarios if Kamski wanted to keep up his appearance as a CEO of CyberLife. The media for sure would be interested about the thing about Amanda as Joel had read the newspaper he collected today. 

There was a story about how amanda would spend her next 20 years in prison from all she had done. She had apparently killed 3 people and Kamski was almost her 4th victim of homicide. She now had a mandatory to be 24/7 watched by at least 4 guards and she had to speak to a therapist and a psychiatrist at least twice a week.

Joel felt horrible about all the horrors Amanda had done, especially for Kamski. He loved Kamski so deeply and would never want anyone to hurt him, ever.

After he had finished his cigarette, he dumped it to the glass jar and closed the window.

As he came back to his bedroom he sighed. What a day.

Joel knew that he was demisexual but he still had a strong romantic attraction towards Kamski but would never require anything from Kamski if he himself wasn't willing to do so. He found it interesting to study Kamski's reactions though. He knew that he had to tell Kamski sooner or later. He was a bit nervous about it since he didn't have any clue how Kamski would react to it. He sighed. But he genuinely loved Kamski, he just couldn't feel much if someone touched him a certain way.

_Maybe Kamski is different...he for sure feels something towards him, he just hoped that Kamski loved him even after he have told him about his sexuality._

Or maybe he hadn't found a 'perfect partner' before. He would be willing to test it with Kamski sometime but he was prepared if it didn't feel any different than its usual nothingness.

He just sighed at the thought of Kamski looking at him with a surprised look on his face.

He switched all lights off and slipped under one of his blankets. Kamski had a light green blanket on, Joel had a moderate green on.

Joel closed his eyes and sleep took him right away.


	13. Discussions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamski has a terrible hangover.
> 
> Joel and Kamski are going to plan their trip.
> 
> Kamski relapsed.
> 
> Chloe is worried about Kamski's alcohol consumption.
> 
> Android revolution gets a new gear.

**31st January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's apartment**

**6:46AM**

Kamski slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the smell. He then looked at himself and realized that his t-shirt was covered with vomit. He had apparently vomited all over his neck and some on his hands.

He looked at himself with disgust. He needed to clean up all the vomit.

He got up from the bed and checked if there was any vomit on Joel's bed. Luckily there was none. He quickly went to Joel's bathroom and closed the door.

He didn't even want to check himself out from the mirror since the vomit was itching his face.

He washed his face on the sink since he hated the itchy feeling. After his face was clean he decided to use Joel's bathtub.

He stripped from his clothes and was now only wearing his underpants.

As he started to fill it up with warm water he realized that his hair had been saved from the vomit, it was clean. So he went to look for a hairtie from Joel's bathroom cabinets.

He found none but what he found was a brandy bottle, the bottle he had almost drank completely last night. He felt glad that Joel had taken the bottle from him even though he had no memory of it.

He then heard a knock on the door.

"Elijah, are you alright?" Chloe asked.

Kamski sighed in relief that it was just Chloe, he didn't want to explain Joel his little _accident_.

"Yes, I guess." Kamski replied.

Chloe was silent for a minute before asking;

"Do you need anything?" She asked him.

"Uhh...do you happen to have any spare hairties?" He akwardily asked while brushing his fingers through his hair.

"Sure, uh...could you open the door for me?" She asked.

Kamski opened the door for her and she stepped in.

Chloe looked at him and noticed that he had a bit too much to drink since she could smell the vomit. She also noticed the brandy bottle on the open bathroom cabinet. It was nearly empty.

"How much have you drank?" She carefully asked him still eyeing the bottle.

Kamski just looked at her ashamed and explained her that he had actually no idea since his memories from the rest of the night have been completely wiped out after he drank the wine bottle empty.

"Elijah...please. You should really drink less in the future." She sadly told him.

Kamski sighed and nodded.

"I know...but sometimes it gets out of hand." He admitted with shame.

Kamski took out a chair and sat down on it. He rested his hands on his stomach since it worked very well as a pillow.

Chloe then took out a hairbrush and started to brush Kamski's hair. She put it on a bun and tied it up nicely.

Kamski just watched her from the bathroom mirror as she tampered with his hair.

"You need to teach me that method, it looks amazing." He smiled at her.

Chloe smiled back and looked at his beard which had been growing freely for the past months.

"You need to get your beard shapened up a bit, it looks a bit wild now." She requested while looking at the beard.

Kamski put his hands on his beard and liked how it felt. It was very soft. Previously he had always kept it at moderately lenght but recently he had just been letting it grow.

"Yes, you're right. It could use some editing."

Chloe nodded and took out a pair of scissors and very carefully cutted the beard back into shape but didn't cut it as short as it had been previously since Kamski seemed to like its new improved lenght.

After she had finished the cutting she took out a broom and sweeped all the hairs from the floor into the bathroom trashbin.

"Thank you Chloe, I really appreciate all you do for me." Kamski smiled at her and his grey eyes lightened up for a second before going back to their usual dull state.

Chloe just looked at Kamski's eyes and noticed how his eyes looked lighter grey a second before turning back to a darker grey.

Then she noticed Kamski's arms again and frowned a bit as she saw the scars.

Kamski noticed this and folded his hands in order to hide the scars a bit.

He sighed.

"I know that you're worried about me and I know that I am not okay. But please believe me when I say that I will be alright someday." Kamski looked back at Chloe.

Chloe nodded.

"Alright Elijah, but please take your time bathing since the bathtub should be full in a minute or so." She gestured with her hand to the still filling bathtub.

"Oh, right...I forgot I still had it filling up, thanks." He rose up from the chair and closed the faucet so it wouldn't overfill.

Chloe then exited the bathroom and closed the door.

As soon as Chloe was out of sight he took his underpants off and slipped in to the warm water.

Joel had a couple of shampoo bottles on the bathtub ledge so Kamski took one and poured some of its contents on to the water and swirled the sampoo with his finger in order to mix it well with the warm, almost hot water.

He liked how the water felt on his skin but as soon as his still healing cuts touched the water he hissed in pain. The shampoo and the warm water felt awful on the cuts.

He held his left hand with his right so it could stay above the water. 

He looked at the cuts and started to feel like he needed to add some more. He scanned the room with his eyes and spotted a razorblade meant for shaving a beard. Joel had an amazing goatee but he shaved all the other beard always off. He really rocked that style. 

Kamski started to imagine his hands on Joel's beard and just feeling the thickness of it and the lenght. It wasn't a short goatee but about 15-20cm long. He quitted his fantasies as the terrible urge to cut bubbled to the surface.

He felt like if he just cutted one tiny cut Joel woulsn't notice it.

He rose up from the water and grabbed the razorblade.

He held the blade on his skin just above his bicep and made one very tiny but a bit deep cut. The feeling of relief hit him instantly. He felt like he was in Heaven as soon as the blade dug in his skin.

The feeling was intoxiating, he wanted to make more.

He made 4 more. 4 larger and deeper cuts, he felt the blood dripping from his arm to the floor.

Then the reality hit him, he realized that he had made 5 cuts, 4 in need of stitching, and the 4 were bleeding relatively fast.

He needed help.

He thought about calling Chloe but the potential look of betrayal on her face was too much for him. But if he disn't call her, he could bleed to death since he was sure that he had bursted an artery or something since the blood was coming out from the cuts so fast.

"Chloe, I need your help!" He called her.

Chloe instantly opened the bathroom door and as she saw Kamski's bleeding arm and all the blood coming out of it she looked absolutely horrifiend and shocked.

"I need to take you to the hospital, now!" Chloe told him very sternly.

"Please, no hospital, they will keep there for at least 2 days if I go there!" Kamski exclaimed in panic.

Chloe sighed and quickly exited the room. He needed to wake up Joel or ask him where he does keep all the compression bandages.

She rushed to Joel's bedroom and placed her hand on Joel's cheek in order to wake him up.

He snapped hie eyes open and looked a bit scared of the sudden alarm.

"What happened?" He asked.

"It's Elijah, he needs your help!" Chloe looked to be in panic.

"What...oh." Joel knew instantly what have happened to him.

 _Kamski you motherfucker, don't do anything stubid._ Joel thought.

He rose up from his bed and went by his bedroom dresser, opened one of the drawers and took out a medical satchel out of it.

He then hurried to the bathroom with Chloe.

* * *

**31st January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's apartment**

**Bathroom**

**7:24AM**

As soon as Joel and Chloe entered the bathroom Kamski was already unconscious from the blood loss. There was blood everywhere.

Joel quickly checked Kamski's pulse and it was very weak but still there.

He openened the medical satchel and took out a compression bandage and tied it very tightly on the cuts in order to stop the blood coming out from the cuts.

He held the compression to the cuts for a good 5 minutes and then loosened the grip a bit so the arm could receive the blood it needed in order to function at full capacity.

After 10 minutes the cuts have stopped from bleeding completely and Joel took the compression off and replaced it with regular bandages and made sure to tighten the bandage enough to ensure the cuts have no change to reopen anytime soon.

Chloe dressed Kamski up a bit so he wouldn't be naked anymore.

Joel moved Kamski to the livingroom couch. He struggled to lift Kamski up but he knew that if he didn't succeed Kamski could be in a great danger since the bathroom floor was so cold and Kamski needed to be warmt up to ensure he don't get hypothermic from the blood loss.

He managed to place Kamski on the couch and went to his bedroom to find a blanket for him. He chose a light green blanket and tucked Kamski in very carefully.

Joel then went to sit down on a kitchen chair and just sat there and looked at the ceiling.

"Joel, I could prepare you a breakfast if you want to." Chloe requested.

"Thanks, Chloe." Joel gratefully responded.

Chloe just smiled and opened the fridge.

Joel then rose up from the chair and went back to the bathroom. He looked at the all blood on the floor tiles and sighed.

But first he needed to empty the bathtub, he took the blug out and all the water started to drain out. He took a mop and rinsed it at the sink and started to mop away all the blood on the floor.

Finally the floor was white again and he rinsed the mop clean.

He sighed.

He needed to brush his teeth.

After he was done he went back to his bedroom and dressed since he was only wearing boxers.

He made his bed and put a gray turtleneck and black trousers on. He then proceeded to go back to the kitchen but something interrupted him. It was the bumblebee.

She howered around his face and sat on his nose. Joel just looked at the bumblebee. She flickered her antennas towards Joel's eyes. She was inspecting him.

Joel didn't know what to do with the situation. He continued to walk to the kitchen while his bumblebee still sitting on his nose.

As he arrived to the kitchen he saw Chloe making him a fruit and berry salad and pancakes.

Chloe noticed Joel and the bumblebee. She smiled.

"I asked the bumblebee to go and inform you that the breakfast is ready, apparently she is a very smart one." Chloe smiled with his eyes closed and she looked to be in a great mood.

Joel looked impressed.

"I remember Kamski telling me once that he had programmed you to be able to understand and communicate with animals but actually seeing it happening...wow." Joel definitely was impressed.

"By the way, Kamski seems to be doing better, the color on his skin has returned." Chloe informed.

"Good, not that he really have any color on his pale skin but it looked almost...grey when I saw him." Joel sarcastically replied with obvious worry on his voice.

Chloe nodded and continued to fry the pancakes.

Joel sat down and looked at still unconscious Kamski. He looked so peaceful. 

Then he noticed that Kamski was staring to gain consciousness as his expression on his face changed a bit. He murmured something and slowly opened his eyes.

"I'm sorry Joel, I..didn't intent to kill myself this time, I swear." He very weakly admitted.

Joel sighed.

"I know, it was an accident." Joel softly responded while he ate the fruits, the bumblebee still sitting on his nose.

The bumblebee looked very interested about the fruits and berries. She pointed her antennas towards Joel's breakfast.

"I needed to only make one cut...but it got out of hand." Kamski told Joel as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

"I believe you, but you need to rest. Sleep a but if you can." Joel sadly smiled at Kamski who nodded and his eyes seemed to have a brand new glow. He looked to be actually happy.

"I really love you, I admire your kindness." He looked at Joel staright to his eyes and smiled.

Joel looked a bit surprised from Kamski's genuine happiness but neverthless smiled back.

"As do I, sleep well, Kamski." 

Kamski nodded and closed his eyes and sleep took him right away.

* * *

**31st January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's apartment**

**10:09AM**

Joel was having his smoke break and noticed that Kamski had woken up and he was staring at him with an interested glance.

"Good morning, Kamskiman." 

Kamski smiled and put his hands behind his neck and continued to watch Joel.

"Morning yourself, Muscleman." Kamski sarcastically replied.

Joel rolled his eyes at that.

"You need to drink water, you lost a significant amount of blood." Joel took the last drag of his cigarette and dumped it in the glass jar.

He then took a glass and filled it with water. He gave it to Kamski who greedily started to drink it.

After 3 glasses Kamski finally felt hydrated again.

"Thanks, by the way how did I end up on the couch from the bathroom floor?" He curiously asked Joel.

Joel smirked.

"I carried you, and it wasn't easy." He told Kamski with a wink.

Kamski looked a bit dumbfounded.

"You _carried_ me? Wow..." He smiled at Joel.

"But you know, you really need a bath. That blood needs to be washed away from your skin."

Kamski sighed.

"Alright, but I need to smoke first." Kamski told him as he was starting to feel withdrawal symptoms, his head started to ache.

Joel nodded and helped Kamski up from the couch since he still was feeling a bit weak from the blood loss.

After Kamski had yet again stolen Joel 3 cigarettes ans smoked them all he was ready to bathe.

"But this time I'm going to supervision you, just in case."

"Sounds fair, although I don't mind it at all." Kamski flashed Joel a toothy grin.

Joel just shook his head and couldn't kept himself from smiling at Kamski's dirty mind.

Joel pulled a chair and sat on it while Kamski stripped from his underwear and started to yet again fill up the tub.

Kamski felt Joel's eyes on him and looked at Joel with a suspucious glare.

"What are you doing?" He asked with an awkward smile.

"Watching you bathing, what about you?" Joel sarcastically replied with a smirk.

"Okay you got me. I was definitely watching you earlier so I think this is fair." He sighed and smiled a watery smile at Joel.

Joel rolled his eyes and looked at Kamski who tampered with his hair since the bun it had been earlier had gotten ruined.

Joel looked at Kamski's physique and he didn't really like how he had barely any muscles on his arms amd legs. His massive belly was definitely a health risk. Although he had fat elsewhere too, his thigs looked very soft. 

Joel shook his head, he needed to quit his fantasies now. He didn't know what to think about the fact that he actually liked Kamski's physique but at the same time he didn't.

He sighed.

Joel couldn't really say anything about it since he would be a hypocrite.

He wasn't on a healthy shape either but he felt glad that he had actually managed to lose weight recently. He stomach wasn't as round as it had been just a couple of months ago and his face had lost some of the fat too.

Then he noticed a t-shirt on the floor which was covered in vomit. It was Kamski's.

"You _vomited_ on your shirt?" Joel asked with disbelief.

"I couldn't prevent it, I don't even remember vomiting at all." Kamski awkwardily admitted.

Then it all hit Joel.

"Did you vomit on my bedsheets too?" Joel nervously asked.

Kamski wondered a minute about it.

"Nah, I don't think so." He admitted.

As Kamski was now on the warm water and washing his feet...or trying to. He disn't use the left hand since the bandage needed to be kept in place as well as it possibly could. He didn't take any risk that the wounds could potentially reopen.

Joel sighed in relief.

"Good, since I had just changed fresh bedsheets." Joel was seemingly relieved about it.

Kamski gave up on reaching to wash his feet. He just sat on the water with a defeated expression.

Joel raised an eyebrow to that.

"Do you perhaps are in need of assistance?" Joel asked Kamski teasingly.

Kamski just lifted his head a bit and stared at Joel with eyes full of frustration.

"I am not able to reach my feet, I hate myself." 

Joel looked at Kamski with a sad expression.

"Don't hate yourself, everyone needs help sometimes."

Kamski just looked at Joel with dead eyes.

He looked very depressed.

"Joel, I don't feel so good." He told him and suddenly all color vanished from his face.

Joel took a towel and helped Kamski up from the bathtub. He needed to dry him and make sure he gets to the toilet on time.

He looked like he could vomit at any given minute.

He dried Kamski and offered him a pair of underpants so he didn't need to be completely naked.

Joel then made sure he could lean on the toilet when he needed to.

Joel exited the bathroom in order to give Kamski some privacy. As soon as he closed the door he could hear Kamski vomiting violently.

The bumblebee looked a bit disgusted and buzzed a bit. She also retreated her antennas from their previous position and placed them all the way back. She looked scared.

Joel took her gently out of his nose with his index finger. He placed her on his left palm and petted her very softly. She seemed to have calmed down so Joel decided to pay a visit on his kitchen and see what Chloe was up to.

* * *

**31st January 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's apartment**

**2:02PM**

Kamski was feeling much better now. He had managed to eat and drink something. He felt a bit dehydrated but was constantly drinking water so the feeling would vanish eventually.

"Kamski, we need to plan our trip." Joel suddenly told him with a serious glance.

Kamski nodded and took a seat right next to Joel as he was sitting on the couch.

"We definitely need to inform all needed personnel in advance in order to avoid any consequences that could be happening since we are technically celebrities." Joel explained.

Kamski nodded.

"Yes, I have already made a contact with the Finnish government and they know that we are going to visit Finland in a week." Kamski proudly admitted.

Joel nodded and explained him that they need to inform also the Finnish police and maybe make some announcements to the Media.

"Okay, are we planning to inform only the Finnish Media or also the American Media about our visit?" Kamski asked.

"If we inform either, the other will eventually find out about it and the results are the same if we were to inform them both at the same time." Joel explained.

Kamski nodded, it made sense.

"I think we should make an announcement in a day or two." Joel requested.

"That's a good idea." Kamski smiled,

"Have you gotten a valid passport?" Suddenly asked Joel.

"Yes, I think so. It's valid for 5 years a time, so I have 3 more years left." 

"Good. But are you sure you want to spend a month with me?" Joel carefully asked him.

Kamski looked straight into Joel's eyes and cupped his face.

"Of course I do!" He told Joel and kissed him.

Joel just smiled and hugged Kamski.

"But one question: when did you plan to continue your work?" Joel awkwardily smiled at him.

"How so?"

"The thing is...when you're not doing any of the work we have, I have to do it all on myseöf and with the help of our team." He admitted with a sigh.

"Oh my god...I didn't realize! I'm sorry." He embarassely apologized.

Joel sighed.

"It's fine, but could you help me with some work I need finish before tomorrow?" He kindly asked.

"Sure, count me in." He enthuastically told Joel.

Joel smiled and gestured Kamski to follow him to the bedroom.

He opened his laptop and showed Kamski that he had been working on a synthetic human lungs and they needed to be ready due tomorrow.

"Impressive, I really find your style fascinating." Kamski told Joel while he was inspecting all the blueprints and calculations. He liked how anatomically accurate the lungs looked and how they would actually fit the human thorax perfectly.

"Thanks, it was a lot of work. **And** it still isn't complete." Joel admitted.

"Good work anyways, so...let's check the coding part next."

Kamski was better at coding than Joel, but the style Joel coded with was something absolutely fascinating to Kamski. Kamski made a few changes and added some code to the coding but for him the code looked absolutely stunning and fine.

"I think the coding part is now complete, let's check the calculations."

Joel showed him all needed calculations such as velocity and that all needed veins would be completely usable and fine. Synthetic lung fragments were very hard to make completely the same as the biologic one.

Kamski made a few changes to it at as well.

"I think it's fine now. What else did you had?" He asked with a wink.

Joel slightly blushed and showed Kamski that he had managed to save a copy of the Android Kamski have been so keen on working on with.

Kamski was stunned.

"How did you even get this? My actual RK200 model's coding...holy shit." 

"I knew the Android was important for you...so I kind of made sure there would always be a copy of the programming if something were to happen."

"Wow...I have also got a copy but yours seems to have more information on it. Interesting." Kamski thought about telling Joel the purpose of the Android.

"The Android, RK200 is meant to be Carl's caretaker, I gave _him_ a way more free thinking than I usually would." Kamski explained with an abvious excitement.

"Wow, I did wonder why you have coded the Android to have kind of a free mind...being alive but Chloe is too, right?" Joel asked him.

"Yes, she is alive, she is conscious and aware of her existence."

"I figured out that much, yes." Joel looked like he was thinking about something.

"What is on your mind?" Kamski asked.

"I am thinking about the fact that we have created life, an actual life. Living beings."

"...yes? And?"

"Don't you think we are playing God a bit too much?"

"So...you're saying that we shouldn't give Androids a free will nor code them to be alive, use the same code all biological beings are made of?" Kamski asked.

"No, but are we actually the right people to design an actual living being and sell them as assistents?" Joel was having moral thoughts.

"You're right about that...but people don't really believe that Androids could be alive and just like us, humans."

"Yes, and that is a depressing thought." Joel sighed and looked sad.

"We need to somehow change that reality." Kamski looked at Joel.

Joel nodded.

Then Joel looked like he had an Eureka moment.

"I have a plan." He looked brightly at Kamski who seemed to understand what he meant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have issues writing this chapter, many misspelled words and illogical things.
> 
> I also had multiple typos. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this.


	14. Amanda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamski and Joel are going to finish up the RK200 model as aoon as Kamski's house gets cleaned.
> 
> Kamski is having trouble reading without his glasses.  
> (That motherfucker forgot them at home.)
> 
> Kamski gets anxious about Joel visiting his house.
> 
> Kamski's house is one big junkyard.
> 
> Amanda's secret gets revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I had to update this again as I have apparently put the wrong purplishing date, I had originally put 20th May but it's 28th May already, so oops.  
> My bad. 
> 
> Sorry for the possible extra notification.

**1st February 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's apartment**

**9:01AM**

It was Tuesday and Joel had a way too much work to do.

He really hoped that Kamski would help him since he was the CEO after all. But he was still sleeping right next to him. But as he had noticed yesterday that Kamski had difficulties reading and inspecting his work, he had apparently forgotten his eyeglasses home. He didn't say anything about it as Kamski seemed to pretend everything was fine since he really wanted to check Joel's coding.

Joel hoped that Kamski hadn't accidently made any typos or misspelled any words since his eyesight wasn't the best without his glasses.

He sighed.

Joel took out his laptop and drawing tablet and started to design a synthetic human heart, they already have succesfully made a Thirium pump, an android heart but an actual human heart. It would require a lot of work and maybe they do need a specific certification from the Government since a synthetic heart was something people were still very wary of. People had their cautious view of even donated human hearts. They didn't really had any trust on those.

He started to scetch the heart and made a 3D model of it. 3D modelling really helped him to see the whole picture of the organ. He could rotate it 360° and even zoom inside the aorta and veins in order to see if he had left any bugs or mistakes there.

Joel had been up since 7AM and he and Kamski managed to catch some sleep about 4 to 5 AM.

Kamski seemed to be a bit... _needy_. He desperately wanted Joel's attention and insisted that he needed to be touched.

Joel was a bit nervous about that and he was about to politely declined Kamski's request until he saw how disappointed Kamski seemed to be. He looked so sad.

Joel had agreed on touching him once, or more like poking him.

Kamski had gotten out of breath only by Joel's touch. He _literally_ had touched him with his index finger **once** to the stomach and nothing else. 

Kamski had begged him to touch him again but Joel wasn't in the mood. He wanted to sleep. Kamski seemed yet again a bit sad but he convinced Joel that it was okay.

Joel had slept 2 hours and it made his thinking process less fluent than it would be if he had slept at least 6 hours. His head also was aching. He propably should have a smoke break.

So he got up from the bed and put his laptop and tablet on the nightstand.

He opened his bedroom window. But as soon as he took a pack of cigarettes out he noticed that he needed to propably get another glass jar since the thought of just dumping cigarette stumps on the ground was not the best.

He thought about just going to the kitchen window. He noticed the old stumped cigarette on the nightstand he had left there days ago. He had forgotten to clean it up and now the nighstand had a black mark on it.

_Fuck that._

He closed the window and put a bathrobe on. He cleaned the old cigarette stump up and threw it to the trashcan.

He went to the kitchen and noticed that Chloe was taking care of his houseplants and the bumblebee was sitting on her nose.

"Good morning, Joel." She greeted him.

"Morning." Joel responded with a tired tone.

He was very tired. He sat down on the chair he had moved right in front of the window. He opened the window and lit up a cigarette.

"You look very tired." Chloe pointed out.

Joel took a drag of the cigarette and looked at Chloe.

"Oh, really...I didn't notice." He sarcastically replied but there was a hint of sadness on his tone.

Chloe looked at him with a frown.

"Have you slept at all?" She was worried.

"2 hours at the most..." Joel sighed and took another drag.

"Why don't you try to sleep a bit?" She asked.

"It's not that easy but I should try, yes." He admitted and took the last drag of the cigarette and held the smoke inside for a bit until releasing it, and stumped the cigarette on the glass jar.

"But I also have a lot of work to do...so I'll see about that." Joel continued.

He closed the window and went back to bedroom. He sighed and took the bathrobe off and slipped under the bedsheets.

His eyes felt very worn and he just wanted to keep them shut but since he couldn't really catch any sleep and the work needed to be done he had no option but to continue working.

So he took the laptop and tablet and started to work on with the projects.

He felt glad that Oliver and his team were there to help him out, they were modifying android biocomponents and testing them out. They were making sure they would work perfectly and that was enough work for them. The still developing synthetic heart would need testing as soon as he had made a prototype of it.

Joel really hoped that Kamski would help him but he also wanted to let Kamski sleep since he really looked like he needed it. He looked so exhausted that his body was just at completely limp state. He also looked like he was on some kind of statsis. Joel just stared at him with wonder on his eyes.

Kamski probably was just in a very deep sleep but it still looked very weird.

He felt that the sleep would take him so he turned the devices off and placed them back at the nightstand.

He layed on his back and closed his eyes. He felt the sleep welcoming him and he went fast asleep immediately.

**1st February 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's apartment**

**12:01PM**

Joel woke up and felt better after sleeping a bit more.

He stretched his arms and yawned. His head felt much more clear but it was yet again hurting.

_Fucking addiction._

He sighed and opened the bedroom window and lit a cigarette. He placed it on his lips and took a long drag and enjoyed how the smoke felt inside his lungs until very slowly releasing it and pulled the cigarette from his mouth and just kept it bedween his fingers and looked how the smoke was floating in the air.

Then he heard a knock on the bedroom door.

"Yes?" He asked.

Chloe opened the door and she had the bumblebee on her forehead. The bee just sat there and as soon as the bee sensed that there are more people she started to fly towards Joel.

But as soon as she sensed the smoke she looked scared. She returned on Chloe's forehead.

"Did you get any sleep?" She asked.

"Yes, a few more hours. I feel a bit better now." He smiled and took another drag.

Chloe smiled and went by the still sleeping Kamski.

"I wonder how long he will be sleeping today. He looks very peaceful" She pointed out.

Joel shrugged and took a drag of his cigarette and blew some smoke at Kamski's direction.

Kamski apparently sensed the smoke as his eyes opened a bit

"...can I steal your cigarette?" Kamski asked him with a sleepy smile.

"Fine. But you really need to quit stealing my cigarettes since I will run out of them as you consume them with such a significant speed." Joel's voice was full of sarcasm and he smirked at Kamski and then offered the cigarette to him.

Kamski just smiled and very greedily took it and took a drag of it.

Joel just shook his head.

"How did you sleep, Elijah?" Chloe asked him.

"Very good, I feel well rested although I could use some more sleep." He responded while taking another drag.

Joel looked at him with a thoughtful expression.

"Kamskiman, do you not remember that we have a lot of work to do today?" 

Kamski's smile instantly vanished.

"...yeah, but I really need to get my glasses since my eyes are still hurting from yesterday." He rubbed his left eye and took the last drag of Joel's cigarette and threw it into the thrashbin across the room.

Joel was impressed.

Kamski just smiled and put his hands behind his neck.

As soon as the bumblebee noticed the smoke was gone she seemed yet again excited to see Joel.

She happily hovered around him and landed on his hair. Joel smiled at the bumblebee and stretched his arms a bit.

"Would you perhaps want some breakfast?" Chloe politely asked.

"Yeah, I'm always hungry." Kamski told Chloe and put one of his hands on his stomach.

Joel shaked his head a bit at that.

"Okay, I'll start preparing it then." She smiled.

"Sure, I'll help you with it." Joel responded.

He needed to get dressed. Chloe took the hint and exited the room.

Joel opened his dresser and wondered which colour would he wear today. 

As Joel was looking at the various choices of colours Kamski spoke up;

"Which color do you wear today?" Kamski asked him.

Steel blue, what a wonderful colour. He really likes that colour.

Joel grabbed a steel blue turtleneck and showed it to Kamski. Kamski seemed to approve very much. Kamski sat up on Joel's bed and looked at him.

Joel just watched Kamski staring at him with that stubid smile and Kamski seemed to enjoy doing it, Joel shook his head and put the turtleneck on. And beige trousers. He wasn't like Kamski who always wears the same colour day after day. The black turtleneck didn't really suit Kamski at all, an actual colour would be better.

Perhaps green would suit him the best.

"Hey, by the way why do you happen to always wear that same black or dark blue turtleneck?" Joel asked him as he was putting the trousers on.

Kamski placed his hands on his stomach and looked at the black turtleneck on the floor. 

"I haven't thought about it, should I use more lighter colors?" He asked.

"I think green would suit you well."

Kamski nodded and was yet again laying on the bed. 

"I have one light green sweater but it needs to be washed before using it again." Kamski sighed.

Joel nodded.

As soon as Joel was dressed he gently took the bumblebee out of his hair and placed her on the top of the dresser. She watched him with great interest and pointed her antennas right up.

Joel grabbed a hairbrush and started to brush his hair. He had forgotten to brush it yesterday and now it was just a huge mess. And it was getting greasy.

He sighed.

"I like your hair." Kamski suddenly said.

"Thanks, I think I do like yours as well." He responded with obvious sarcasm since Kamski had very greasy hair once again. He continued to untangle his hair.

"It's not that greasy, yet." He smiled and stetched his arms and legs a bit. And then started to yet again rub his own sides. He seemed to enjoy it a way too much.

Joel shook his head. Kamski really was a bit needy but he had to be on his own for a while at least.

Joel then put his focus back on his own greasy hair.

He really needed to wash it today. And so does Kamski.

The bumblebee rolled on her back and was watching Joel brushing his hair.

He then put the hairbrush back to to its usual place and offered his finger to the bumblebee who was on her back and her legs were pointing straight up. She grabbed his finger and put her all 6 legs around it and just curiously looked at him.

She rolled her tongue out and shaked it at Joel.

Joel just looked at her with wide eyes. He had never seen anything like that before.

He felt glad that he had already brushed his teeth hours ago since he just wanted something to eat.

"Why don't you also dress up, I will go and see what Chloe is up to."

Kamski nodded and closed his eyes. He seemed to be asleep again.

Joel shook his head.

He exited the bedroom and found Chloe trying to make a peach and raspberry soup. She looked like she didn't know how to exactly make that.

"Do you need help?" Joel asked her.

Chloe blushed and nodded.

"How do you make it go thicker?" She asked.

Joel took out a packet of potato starch and offered it to her.

"You need to fill up a glass of cold water and mix one tablespoon starch in it."

Chloe filled the glass and started to mix the starch in it.

"What next?" 

"You pour it very slowly into the hot soup while continuously mixing." Joel instructed her. He started to swirl the soup while Chloe slowly poured the startchwater into it.

"Now you wait until it starts to bubble and after the first bubble appears, turn off the stove and let the soup cool down a bit."

"Thanks, do you make this often?" She curiously asked him.

"Not really, I used to watch my mother doing it and she teached me how to make it as a child."

"Oh, is your mother still alive?" She carefully asked.

Joel nodded.

"Yes she is, she turns 72 in three weeks."

"Is that the reason why you go back to Finland this time?" She asked.

"Yes and no."

Chloe looked a bit perplexed.

"What do you mean by that?"

Joel sighed.

"My mother and his boyfriend have been taking care of my house when I am away." He looked at the bumblebee on his finger and continued;

"They really hope that I would be spending more time with them but I have my career and ...Kamski here." He looked a bit sad.

"Do you even want to go _home_ at all?" Chloe asked.

"Yes I do but it's hard everytime to say goodbyes to them since they always look so sad when I come back to USA." He explained.

Chloe nodded.

"Do they know about you and Kamski?"

"Yes, I have told them. They want to meet him as they know he will be coming with me this time." He felt a bit less sad about the fact that Kamski will meet his parents.

He also felt a bit nervous since he had no idea how they will get along. His parents seemed to accept their relationship and they also knew who Elijah Kamski was. His mother had one of her kidneys removed recently due a kidney failure and she had received a synthetic kidney from CyberLife. 

She knew the wonders of technology and was very grateful for the new kidney.

A kidney Joel designed and patented for CyberLife.

She literally had had a surgery yesterday and was now recovering. She didn't know it was Joel who designed the kidney, she only knew it was someone from the CyberLife but she hadn't asked if it was him.

Luckily her boyfriend was there to help her heal and do the daily chores.

"My mother has a kidney I designed. She had surgery yesterday." Joel looked at Chloe.

Chloe stared at him wide eyed.

"Really? That's amazing!" She seemed very excited.

"Yes, I was actually surprised how soon Finland's medical safety unit accepted the new synthetic kidney. And she was automatically the first one on the line." Joel smiled slightly.

Chloe smiled and nodded.

Then she took out a small bowl from Joel's glass vitrine and filled it up with the soup. She offered it to Joel.

"Thanks." He said and took out a spoon.

He offered Chloe a glass of Thirium.

She took it with gratitude.

Joel watched her gulping it with one go. She smiled at him and thanked.

The bumblebee was yet again curious about the fruits Joel kept on his kitchen. She was hovering around them and inspecting them by her antennas. Joel offered her a bit pf his soup and the bumleber started to drink it with her minuscule tongue.

Then Kamski joined them and looked curious about the fruit soup.

Kamski had put his hair into a bun, it looked a bit slimy.

"What's in it?" He asked and pointed the soup.

Chloe smiled.

"Peaches and raspberries, why don't you give it a try." Chloe requested and offered him a small glass bowl.

Kamski nodded and started to fill up the bowl and Joel offered him a spoon.

"Thanks."

He tasted it and surprisingly he liked it.

"Wow, I have remembered that fruits would taste horrible but this is actually very good." He looked very happy as he continued eating the soup.

Joel and Chloe smiled at that.

"Kamski, what do you think about if we were to complete the RK200 model today...or tomorrow?" Joel asked him with a smile.

"Sure but we need to pick the android up from one of the warehouses." He took a breath and continued; "...and where would we be completing it?" He asked.

"What about your house?"

Kamski started to feel anxious.

"No thanks, it is in no condition for that." He anxiously explained.

Joel and Chloe looked at each other and nodded.

"I and Chloe have decided that we will help you to clean up your house."

Kamski's eyes widened.

" _What?_ " He almost exclaimed.

"You said it yourself, you deep down know you want to have it cleaned, don't you?" Joel looked Kamski straight into the eyes.

Kamski was going to protest a but more but he decided to just surrender.

He looked Joel with a defeated look on his face and nodded.

"I have negleted the cleaning so many years I don't even know if it is possible to clean it." He shamefully admitted.

"I and Chloe will know about it more as soon we see it." Joel told him.

Kamski looked very anxious. His hands were trembling a bit and his face was white.

Chloe and Joel noticed that and they both placed one hand on his shoulder.

Kamski was a bit surprised by a sudden act but slowly he started to calm down.

"Thanks." He told them with with a pure gratefulness.

"Anytime." Chloe and Joel told him.

"Now finish eating so we can have a look at the android." Joel encouraged him.

Kamski smiled and continued his eating.

**1st February 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**CyberLife Warerhouse**

**2:33PM**

They arrived at the warehouse by an autonomous taxi Joel had summoned. As the three of them exited the taxi Chloe was absolutely stunned by the view. She had never seen such a massive warehouse before.

A dark grey walls and black roof with massive CyberLife logos in the top of the front wall glowing blue. Little to no windows and heavily secured place. There were multiple guards watching the warehouse at all times.

Joel had taken his fully equipped technician satchel with him and he and Kamski were both wearing lab coats.

The guards noticed Kamski and didn't question why he was there since he basically owned everything including the weapons the guards carried. He could ask for one and get it.

"Impressive." She smiled at the bois.

Kamski used his handprint and opened the door for them. As they all stepped inside the door closed itself and the lights turned on. There were multiple rooms, the room they were in was the main storage. The upstairs was the testing lab where Kamski's emplyees worked.

There were tons of biocomponents and Thirium 310.

Kamski gestured them to follow him so Joel and Chloe compelled.

After walking for a while Kamski pointed his finger at one of the many hyper secured rooms.

He opened the door and there the RK200 was, unfinished and its or _his_ head wide open and glowing.

"That's incredible." Joel told Kamski with a smile.

"I know, so fascinating!" He looked very excited since he has been putting very tens of hours on this android and it still wasn't complete.

"Do you have any place in your house where we could store the android while I and Chloe clean it?" Joel asked.

Kamski thought a bit and sadly shaked his head.

"My house is too full of everything to fit the android within the walls." He looked yet again very sad. His good mood was immediately gone.

"What about I and Chloe go and tidy up one room in your house and then we bring the android there?" Joel requested while subconsciously gently rubbing his own beard.

"Fine, you do that." He sighed and continued; "So let's go to my house and you see what you can do about the current condition it is." He sadly smiled and gestured them to exit the room with him.

Chloe looked like she was thinking something as her LED whirred yellow. She was hacking the police database. He had read on the newspaper with Joel that Amanda was thought to be dead but apparently she faked her own death on February 23rd 2027.

"Chloe, what's going on?" Kamski asked her a bit worried.

Chloe frowned.

"Elijah, did you know that Amanda actually faked her own death last year. I don't know much about her motives but I think she wanted to have invisiblity." Chloe pointed out.

Kamski sighed.

"Yes, I did know. All of my employees know amd have knewn for a while. It was a specific plan. And yes, she practically wanted to have invisibility in order to crawl out of responsibility of her actions. I don't want to talk about it." He explained them with a sad tone.

Joel and Chloe looked at each other and frowned.

"Chloe, of course you didn't know about this sooner since your previous body was destroyed and you were kept on inside a laptop, and if I were honest, I didn't dare to tell you anything bout it. I was ashamed and scared." Kamski explained to her.

She nodded and Joel looked thoughtful.

Joel had knewn about the plan but he had promised to stay quiet about it...but right now he wanted to tell the police about it. But their reputation could be at risk. He couldn't do that for Kamski.

Kamski had lied to the police about the situation. He had told them that he had no idea Amanda would be alive and that she wanted to take a revenge on him.

He had deleted all information about Amanda working under him even after her faked death and decoded and overwritten all files to ensure they couldn't be read by anyone else but him. By untrained eye it looked more like an usual secured file containing sensitive information about CyberLife's patents. 

Kamski had also paid his every single employee quiet to ensure no one would leak any information. Kamski's motives were definitely questionable and higly illegal but he needed to secure his own sefety.

Chloe looked at Joel.

"Did you all know about this?" She a bit furiously asked.

"Yes but you need to keep your mouth shut about it for now at least. I'm sure Kamski has a plan to make it all work out without raising any suspicions." Joel calmly told her.

Kamski nodded and was seemingly happy that Joel was on his side even though Joel knew that his actions weren't fully the right thing to do.

"Will you tell me more about it?" Chloe asked Kamski.

"Maybe someday. Now let's go and see what you can do with the mess." He sadly told them.

"Why won't we complete the android there?" Chloe asked.

Kamski and Joel looked at each other amd them back to Chloe.

"It's much quieter somewhere else and we can avoid anyone lurking or trying to lurk what we are doing." Kamski answered and Joel nodded.

* * *

**1st February 2028**

**Detroit Downtown**

**Kamski's residence**

**3:17PM**

As they exited the taxi Chloe gasped at the sight of Kamski's house. She looked instantly horrified amd she frowned with disgust.

"Aw c'mon...it cannot be that bad already!" Kamski complained and looked very sadly at the horrified Chloe.

Chloe gringed and looked at Kamski.

"Have you ever cleaned your windows, they're pretty yellow?" Chloe asked.

Kamski sighed.

"No." He sharply answered.

"The winter isn't exactly the best time to clean windows, the water will freeze and form a layer of ice on the glass." Joel pointed out.

Kamski nodded and anglered his keys from his pocket and proceeded to open the door.

As soon as the door was open a smell of rotten food and mold hit them.

Joel looked absolutely disgusted and Chloe put her hands on his mouth to cover it up.

Kamski didn't seem to mind the smell at all as he just casually walked to his kitchen.

The kitchen was really filthy, dirty dishes, moldy takeaway boxes and a moldy coffee machine. The floor was dusty and covered in dried food stains.

As soon as Kamski noticed the disgusted faces of Joel and Chloe he looked ashamed.

"Is this a lost cause?" He anxiously asked them.

Joel shook his head and took out two face masks and rubber gloves, he offered Chloe a mask and gloves. She nodded and put the equipment on. 

Joel placed his heavy technician satchel on one of the chairs Kamski had. He of course dusted it first before placing the satchel on it. He then put rubber gloves and face mask on.

Chloe had taken cleaning supplies from Joel's apartment since she and Joel were pretty sure Kamski didn't have any supplies himself. They were right.

"I am glad that you have brpught cleaning supplies since I don't even know if I own any." Kamski awkwardily smiled at them.

Chloe and Joel nodded and started to inspect the kitchen more closely. Joel took a large black trash bag and started to collect all the moldy takeaway boxes inside it. 

Chloe sprayed some of the cleaning solution on the kitchen counters and started to rub them clean with a small towel. After a while she had managed to get the counters clean but over 11 towels were completely dirtied by the cleaning progress.

As Joel had collected every trash the kitchen had and he went outside to dump them into the outdoor trashbin. He sighed in relief that he could finally breath clean air again as he temporarily took the face mask off.

He decided to have a smoke break since his stress levels had started to climb caused by the fact that Kamski's house was just ouright stressfully filthy. He lit a cigarette and held it on his lips.

Then Kamski joined him.

"I didn't even realize my house was _that_ filthy." Kamski admitted and lit a cigarette.

Joel sighed.

"I cannot believe you have let it to rot like this." He pointed out and took a drag of his own cigarette while Kamski was looking at his house from distance.

"As you know I haven't been at the best mental state lately." He took a breath and continued; "So I literally have had no energy to keep my house clean." He started to feel anxious and took a long drag of his cigarette.

Joel nodded in understandment.

"I feel you, I have had similar problems myself." Joel admitted and looked at the sky. It was clear, and the sun was starting to set.

Kamski joined Joel at looking the sunset.

"I have forgot how beautiful the sunset really is." He looked at the sky amazed and took the last drag of his cigarette and dumped it away to the trashbin.

"You really need to visit Finland in the mid summer, since the sun will be up 24 hours a day and at the nighttime it has this constant sunset thing going on." Joel smiled at Kamski.

Kamski looked amazed and he started to smile again. His eyes lightened for couple of seconds before turning dark again.

He started to yet again think about Amanda.

_The fact that she had forced Kamski to claim her dead in order to secure her status terrified him even now. He had managed to get her officially dead and she was very pleased. Kamski wasn't happy about his decision to help her but he hadn't had much of a choice. She had made it very clear that his career and life would be over if he refused to help her._

_She had planned to get a new identity from Russia or from India and get plastic surgery, and her fingerprints modified by Kamski. Kamski of course had refused to modify her a new set of fingerprints._

_She had gotten very furious and pinned Kamski against the wall. She had taken Kamski's shirt off and cutted his arms a couple of times with a ridiculously sharp knife. She knew how much pleasure it would cause him and maybe he would change his mind._

_But he knew Amanda's plan and refused again._

_She had slapped him on the face and very angrily and vowed to make him pay. She didn't break her vow as she had tried to kill him last month._

_But the fact that she had failed and now the fact that her death had been faked was out. He had claimed that he had no role of the faking and that he was absolutely horrified about it, he had told Police and Media that he had been trying to recover from all the pain she had caused but the fact that she had been alive and tried to kill him had scared him a great deal._

_She had managed to commit suicide while in prison. Se now she really is dead. The police had confirmed her dead as the medical staff couldn't do anything about it. She apprently had stole a handgun and shot herself on the head and died immediately._

_She apparently had regrets and couldn't find any reason to continued living._

_She is dead, ans he still felt sad about it. He hated her but he also used to love her._

_He had made sure no evidence from his role of the faking her death had been left out of open. He knew his company was pretty corrupted caused by his actions but no-one knew about it but him Joel, Chloe and his employees who he had paid to be silent about it._

_He knew that if the information somehow leaked to the Media he had all needed evidence to undo the damage of the leak. But even though it was pretty much impossible to get his career ruined by this he was still stressed about it._

Then Joel interrupted his thinking.

"What's on your mind?" He asked with a visible worry on his eyes.

"Amanda...don't worry about it. Our secrets are and will be safe." He convinced him.

Joel sighed and looked worried.

"What about we go back and get that kitchen cleaned?" Joel asked with a smirk.

Kamski smiled brightly and hugged Joel. He looked very happt right now. Kamski felt like his heart was glowing with light and love. He really loved how much Joel cared for him.

Joel took the last of his cigarette and gestured Kamski to go and see what Chloe was doing.

He nodded and went back inside.

Joel sighed. He really loved that Kamskiman really much but sometimes it exhaustes him. He wants to help him but he cannot save Kamski from himself, it has to be him.

* * *

**1st February 2028**

**Detroit Downtown**

**Kamski's residence**

**Kitchen**

**5:37PM**

It had taken several hours to get that kitchen clean but now it was. From floor to the ceiling. Chloe and Joel had done an amazing job, the plumbing had been a pain in the ass since it was almost completely clogged and it took great effort to get all the ectoplasm out.

Chloe had cleaned the fridge and now the windows were open in order to properly ventilate the kitchen to rid that awful frowsty air.

"Is it possible to operate the RK200 in the kitchen?" Chloe asked.

Joel and Kamski looked at each other and shrugged.

"Maybe, but the kitchen table is a bit small for that." Joel pointed out and Kamski agreed.

"Don't you have a larger table somewhere in your house?" Chloe asked.

"Maybe, I need to have a look at the table I have in the livingroom." He told them and went to take a look if the table there would be any larger.

As Joel and Chloe followed Kamski to the livingroom they looked disgusted by the mess there was.

"Kamski, what the fuck." Joel was horrified.

"What?" He dumbfoundily asked.

Joel pointed to the massive pile of dirty clothes and moldy plates.

"Oh, yes. I told you that my house isn't exactly _clean_." He gringed.

Chloe looked horrified.

"Do you have a washing machine?" She asked.

"Yes but it is in the bathroom and I don't dare to step a foot inside it." He looked a bit anxious.

Chloe and Joel looked at each other and gringed. They have promised to clean his bathroom but the state his whole house was at, they didn't even know how messed up it could be if Kamski didn't mind the mess his house was at current time but was absultely scared of the bathroom.

It was the moment Joel and Chloe realized that they were doomed.

"I know you promised to clean it but I absolutely understand if you decide otherwise." He defeately told them.

Joel sighed.

"We'll discuss that later but we really need to clean your livingroom right now." Joel a bit sternly told him.

Kamski nodded and started to this time actually help them out by collecting moldy plates out from the floor and table.

"I could go and buy a vacuum while you two clean the trash out." Chloe offered.

"Sure, but you need to put on a beanie and hide your LED before that." Kamski pointed out Chloe's LED and gave her a black beanie.

She covered her LED with her blonde hair and put the beanie on. She then put her jacket and shoes back on and took her leave. She summoned an autonomous taxi and after a minute the taxi showed up and she stepped in and disappeared from the bois' view.

Joel and Kamski looked at each other.

"I'm sorry Joel, I really am." He apologized and looked very anxious.

Joel sighed.

"It's okay, let's clean up this mess and talk about it later." He requested amd Kamski nodded.

* * *

**1st February 2028**

**Detroit Downtown**

**Detroit Appliance store**

**6:12PM**

Chloe exited the taxi and stood right in front of the Appliance store. She noticed that there were many people with their families and kids. She noticed that no-one seemed to pay any attention to her so she thought she fitted in perfectly.

She went inside the store and looked at the massive scake of options every piece of applianve had. Then she noticed a salesperson walking towards her.

"Hello, how can I help?" They smiled and gestured her to follow them.

"I am looking for a vacuum, a typical one." She answered.

"Then you've come to the right place, lemme show you a few models."

She nodded and as she walked behind the salesperson she noticed an android section, an AX400 model and people were very interested about those. Some interacted with them and some taking pictures of them and the android.

She shook her head, if they only knew that they were alive and not just piece of toys to tamper with.

"There, take a look at this one. It has a few advances as you see, it is very silent and doesn't smell like anything as it warms up. It is also has a very energy saving system" They proudly showed her the best model they had.

Chloe analyzed all models with her scanner and noticed how the second expensive model actually had a way better statistics than the one the salesperson recommended.

"I choose this one." She pointed at the second expensive one and the salesperson looked a bit disappointed.

"You noticed the difference that quickly, huh?" They asked a bit defeatedly.

"Yes, the statistics on this one are better than the one you showed me, you can see for yourself if you compare these two." She pointed out.

They nodded and went to the storage to give her the box of the model she chose.

As they offered the box for her they looked impressed how well she carried the box, it was a bit heavy vacuum but she seemed to have no trouble carrying it.

As the walked with the box to the cashier she yet again glanced at the android section and frowned slighty.

She wanted to just get back to the Kamski's.

She paid the vacuum and left the store while cybernetically summoning an autonumous taxi which was waiting for her right at the door.

She really hoped Kamski and Joel knew what they were doing, she couldn't bare the fall of androidkind if their plan were to fail.

They were planning to make that RK200 a savior of androidkind, they knew it was the only way to convince humans they were people too.

Chloe was worried but she had to trust that they knew what they were doing.

* * *

**1st February 2028**

**Detroit Downtown**

**Kamski's residence**

**Livingroom**

**8:55PM**

Kamski and Joel had managed to get all trash out from the livingroom and from Kamski's bedroom. Joel was absolutely disgusted by the state the bedroom was in.

Kamski had gathered all dirty clothes into a large pile and Joel commanded him to put his bedsheets on it too. He sighed and compelled and he was a bit horrified how filthy they actually were.

Joel was dusting all the furniture amd curtains and was stunned by the amount of dust they were covered with. He had to open a window in order to get the dust floating in the air out and not to breathe too much of it. The house needed to get properly ventilated.

Kamski apparently liked to smoke inside without opening a window since Joel noticed that his walls were stained from cigarette smoke, they have gotten from white to yellowish brown color. He noticed it as he moved the couch a bit and there was a sharp line where the couch had been for ages because the wall was white on the back of the couch.

"You need to quit smoking inside, or your furniture and walls will get even more yellow." Joel told him and pointed the clear line of clean wall section and the stained section.

"Apparently you are correct." He blushed.

"We need to repaint your walls." Joel looked at him a tired expression.

Kamski nodded and was about to say something as the door opened and Chloe stepped in with a box.

"I've got the vacuum, let's start cleaning the floor." She smiled.

Joel and Kamski were happy to see Chloe back and even more happy to see that she had managed to buy a vacuum.

Chloe took the vacuum out of its box and turned it on and began to clean the floors with it.

Joel sighed.

"Let's see the bathroom." He told Kamski and looked straight into his eyes.

Kamski looked very anxious but nodded.

"You two will propably be glad that you haven't eaten dinner yet." Chloe sarcastically smirked at them while vacuuming the floor.

Kamski didn't seem to feel any better as he continued to look anxious. But Joel smirked back.

As Kamski opened the bathroom and turned the lights on his anxiety levels skyrocketed. 

The floortiles were completely covered in some slimy green moss, the shower looked almost black since it was covered with black mold. The bathtub used to be white but now it just looked dark gray with some greenish gray ectoplasm on the bottom of the tub.

"I'm sorry, I...I can't do this!" He anxiously escaped the bathroom right away. He was shaking.

Joel wondered why the hell have anyone let their bathroom to get to this state. He just shooked his head until he noticed something.

He realized instantly it wasn't the dirtyness that scared Kamski but the rats who were hiding under the bathroom counter.

_Oh my god...they must've bitten him. Or maybe they have been disturbing him a great deal._

"We need to catch those rats first." He told Chloe who turned the vacuum off for a minute and came to see what was going on.

Chloe looked a bit horrified and used her scanner to find the rats since she didn't seem to have noticed them before.

"Those rats are full of mites, it would be dangerous to try and catch them without any suitable protective clothing." Chloe a bit anxiously stated.

Joel nodded.

"We need to call someone expert to get these rats out." He sighed.

"But this isn't a reasonable time to call anyone, it's nearly 11PM." Chloe pointed out and frowned.

Joel sighed.

"I'll make the call tomorrow morning but we need to lock that door first before leaving."

Chloe nodded and heeded the advice by locking the door. She turned the vacuum back on and continued to clean the house.

"We can't spend the night there, I'll ask Kamski if he is willing to go back to my place."

Chloe nodded.

"I will stay here and clean up some more. Come back on the morning and the house is clean." Chloe grinned with a geat deal of enthusiasm.

"Thank you, Chloe." Joel warmly smiled at her.

* * *

**1st February 2028**

**Detroit Downtown**

**Kamski's residence**

**Kitchen**

**11:29PM**

Kamski was holding a kitchen knife on his left hand, he felt extremely anxious and stressed out about the rats in the bathroom. He wanted to cut so badly but he knew that he couldn't do that since he wasn't alone.

He couldn't disappoint Joel and Chloe by cutting himself again. He sighed. 

He then put the knife away and pulled his sleeve back on.

He decided to just smoke the stess away. He remembered what Joel requested and opened the kitchen window and took two cigarettes out. He placed one on his lips and lit it.

He took a desperate drag of the cigarette and sat down on the kitchen chair.

He looked around the kitchen and was actually very pleased as it was clean. It had been a while since it had been this clean. Probably years.

Then he heard Joel coming back to the kitchen. He leaned on the doorway and folded his arms. He looked at him and the now clean kitchen and then back to Kamski.

"Those rats aren't safe. Would you like to come back to my place?" He asked.

Kamski thought about a bit and nodded. 

"I don't want to really be there, I have been planning to sell this place and buy a mansion somewhere more peaceful." He explained and took another drag.

Joel nodded.

"Detroit outskirts, perhaps?" He asked.

"Yes." He simply answered and sighed.

Joel just nodded and took a glass of water.

"You could make this a summer cottage, you don't need to sell it. By the way, Chloe promised to stay there overnight and continue to clean the house." Joel told him and took a sip of the water.

"Thank you for cleaning up this place, I really appreciate it." He smiled at Joel.

Joel nodded.

"We really need to eat something, it's been hours." He looked at Kamski who had thrown away the first cigarette and was now litting up the second.

"Yes, probably. What do you recommend?" He asked.

"Sushi?"

"Sure, I let you choose the type." He answered and held the cigarette on his lips.

Joel nodded and started to make a call to the local sushi restaurant which was open 24/7.

"Okay, I made the order to be delivered to my place, so let's go back there, shall we?" He smirked and went to find Chloe.

Kamski just smiled and nodded.

"I need to get my glasses first." He took the last drag and dumped the cigarette on an ashtray and left the kitchen. As he went back to his bedroom and grabbed his glasses with him he noticed Chloe. He waved at her and said his thanks and goodnights to her.

Chloe was dusting a bookcase when he noticed that Kamski and Joel were leaving. She waved at them and continued to clean.

"I will leave my satchel there since we are going to finish the android there anyway." Joel told Kamski while they were already outside and he closed the door.

"An excellent idea." Kamski smiled and hugged him.

Joel hugged him back.

The autonomous taxi had arrived and the bois went back to Joel's apartment.

* * *

**2nd February 2028**

**Detroit Suburb**

**Joel's apartment**

**12:14AM**

As Joel opened his door the first thing he saw was the bumblebee welcoming them back, she was hovering around their faces and landed on Joel's hair.

"A very friendly bee." Kamski sleepily murmured.

Kamski seemed to be really tired, he had trouble keeping his eyes open.

Joel had to support him so he wouldn't collapse when he walked.

As Kamski was now sitting on the kitchen chair his doorbell rang. It was the sushi delivery.

He went to answer the door, paid the sushi and thanked the deliveryperson.

"Kamski, the sushi is there." He called. When there was no answer he went back to the kitchen and noticed that Kamski had fallen asleep on the chair.

Joel shook his head and smiled. Kamski had a way too much sleep debt in storage so it was no surprise that he could have passed out from exhaustion. But this time he just had falled asleep immediately, he wasn't unconscious.

Joel took out a plate and put half of the sushi on the plate and placed the rest in the fridge so Kamski could eat them later when he felt more energized.

He took a pair of chopsticks and started to eat those sushies, he had ordered nigiri and avocado sushi. He knew that Kamski liked the avocado ones so he saved him the most of those. He liked every type of sushi he had tasted.

After he had eaten he picked Kamski up and carried him to his bed. Kamski was very heavy and Joel struggled to carry him but he couldn't just let him sleep on a chair. It would cause him neck and backpain for sure.

He was out of breath from carrying that Kamskiman. He stripped Kamski out of the lab coat and shirt and tucked him in.

He then remembered that he needed to wash his hair. He felt very tired and thought about just skipping it and washing it at the morning when he would wake up.

He took the bumblebee out from his hair and placed her gently on her nest to sleep. She went to her tunnel and began to sleep.

He smiled and hung his lab coat. 

He put his finger on his hair and grimaced when it felt very greasy. He couldn't skip washing his hair, there was no way he would go to sleep with grasy hair.

So he went to the bathroom and started to brush his teeth. After he had done that he stripped naked and turned the shower on. He poured shampoo on his hands and started to wash his hair. After he had washed his hair clean he dried it on a light green towel. And then he dried his body with it and put his clothes which he subconsciously had left on the floor to the laundry. 

He hung the towel up in order to properly let it dry it out.

He sighed.

They will have a lot of work ahead waiting in the morning. He really hoped that Kamski's plan of greating a 'robo Jesus' to save androidkind _and_ humankind will succeed.

He went back to his bedroom and put a pair of clean underwear on and turned the bedroom light off before slipping under his bedsheets.

Kamski was soundily sleeping right next to him. He looked very peaceful but his greasy hair was everywhere. It looked like someone had poured bunch of coconut oil on their hair on purpose to make it look greasy.

But no, Kamski's hair was just greasy from lack of showering.

Joel closed his eyes and felt the exhaustion on his body. It literally begged him to rest so he obeyed and fell asleep immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler alert:  
> The next chapter will be partly consisting rats, rats too many rats. And a horrified Kamski.


End file.
